I am an artist.

          The man who inspired and wrote the movie with Oliver Stone Born on the 4th of July.
He gave a speech as the leader of  the Vietnam Veterans against the war in The Silent March to the Republican National Headquarters at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach in 1972. The March was not televised but inspired a short story by Kurt Vonnegut and was covered by Hunter S.Thompson for Rolling Stone. He talked of old Civil War Hospitals and the wounded and handicapped veterans of the wars left in dirty rooms that had cockroaches as big as your finger, and how the soldiers were forgotten and left unappreciated by their Government. I remember during his inspirational speech his selfless concern for others leaving the hairs on my arms standing straight up.

I am the living death
the memorial day on wheels
I am your Yankee Doodle Dandy
your John Wayne come home
your fourth of July firecracker
exploding in the grave....  Ron Kovic

                                      I am an Artist
                                                                 Ron Kovic

this quiet man with an eloquent voice presented a different kind of war hero: a hero of conscience, a hero of peace, in the great tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

According to the artist,"this was done during the Winship cottage period. I felt very creative.  I just didn't care what other people thought."