Mick Hanson

365 days changed his life forever. Returning to NYC Buddy finds no welcome - no flags flying, just the harsh reality of betrayal. People died emotionally in their living rooms day by day - a generation became immune to the loss of life - a common failure of feeling and imagination, compounded by punishing boredom at the constant daily images of mutilation and death. And people prayed for the war to end. Prayers in the Delta, prayers in the Highlands, prayers in the Marine bunkers facing the DMZ - and it seemed that for every prayer given a soldier died. Buddy came back to NYC at the onset of winter, 1970. Everything he ever knew had gone, only his sister remained. She was the only one left who was willing to help him to try to make sense of that damned Indo-China war that killed his only friend. He becomes a heroin addict to help numb the pain, and in his desperation to support his addiction, he commits a serious crime. Found guilty of third degree murder, he his sentenced to the State Penitentiary and it is there that he finds his true black culture and then his real fight for freedom begins.