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Introduction

Over forty years have now passed since that day in 1974 when we first entered the office of Senator Alan M. Cranston of California and began a sit-in which would quickly escalate into a hunger strike and touch the nation. Hurricane Street is a work of both memory and fiction. It is my own recollection of the strike and all that followed that spring and summer. Some names and details have been changed out of respect for people’s privacy, and to fill gaps in my memory. (One such memory gap is a meeting that took place early in the strike with Senator Cranston on February 13, 1974. Unfortunately, nothing substantive came of that meeting, which is probably why it didn’t lodge itself in my memory, and why I have not included it in this book.) For the sake of presenting a coherent story line, I have also taken the liberty of creating two characters: Tony D., who is essentially a composite of several sight-impaired Vietnam veterans I knew while I was a patient at the Bronx and Long Beach VA hospitals; and Joe Hayward, who represents a number of seriously wounded veterans I also knew during that period. In addition, I have combined the two AVM takeovers of the Washington Monument in the spring and summer of 1974 into one single action.

Each night during the strike after the lights were turned out, I would make entries in my diary using a small penlight. Some of the entries were very brief while others were quite long. Back then I sensed the need, even in the most minimal way, to record the history of the strike. I figured somebody had to try to tell this story while they still could. Most of us, including myself, didn’t expect to live very long back then, with all the nightmares and anxiety attacks screaming in our heads. No doubt everyone involved will have their own way of remembering those days and giving their opinions on what may or may not have happened, but this is how I remember it.