Post by ohva on Feb 21, 2016 16:46:08 GMT -5
purpleshadow wrote:
I found this article from 1989 and some parts are interview with Joel's father. So if anyone is interested here it is...
American Exiles
They Wouldn`t Fight In Vietnam, But Life In Sweden Hasn`t Brought Them Peace
January 13, 1989|By Maria Nilsson.
Despite the occasional doubts Schiller says it was a good move. A central question to all the war resisters had been whether to go back home to change opinion or to work on this from abroad. ``For what it was worth, it was good we were here,`` he says. ``Nobody listens to you in prison, but here we had a forum.``
To Schiller, that forum was the European antiwar movement, in which the war resisters formed an important part. After Carter`s pardon, in 1977, Steve Kinnaman was active in Sweden informing draft resisters and deserters about the program. (Previously, in 1974, a limited clemency was introduced by President Gerald Ford, but it was not until President Carter`s broader pardon and discharge-review programs that many war resisters, including Kinnaman, could return home.)
Kinnaman laughs as he remembers the first trip back to Indiana, using the words ``anticlimax`` and ``quaint`` to describe the clash between his expectations and his experience. ``In a sense there was the feeling of being home,`` he recalls. He appreciated seeing his family and speaking in English. But 11 years abroad had changed him.
Some time ago he noticed he was losing his English. He could no longer always find the right words. ``That made me aware of what I was losing``, he says, now with a noticeable accent in his English. ``Actually, my kids have helped me. The younger children, now 8 and 4, go to English-speaking schools, and I have to make a conscious effort to speak English with them.``
Though he has decided to stay in Sweden, he has kept his American citizenship. ``Somehow I never really gave up the thought of going back,`` he says. ``Besides, giving up your nationality is a one-shot deal. It would be almost like renouncing part of yourself.``
Kinnaman is well established and politically active in Swedish society. He is supervisor at a day-care center and the father of three daughters and a son. His oldest daughter, Melinda,
17, is an aspriring actress who appeared in a recent Swedish TV-production of a Strindberg play. She is best known, however, for a lead part in the Swedish film ``My Life As A Dog.`` His adoptive daughter, Marit, 16, played a small part in the film ``The Serpent`s Way.``
``I couldn`t deal with going back (to the U.S.),`` he says. ``It would be to start over again, and that seems a bit much after 22 years. And when you have children, it`s better and safer here in Sweden.``
During the Vietnam war, Schiller and Kinnaman were active members of the Americancommunity in Stockholm. The war and the fight for amnesty held them together. Like others remaining in Sweden, they have since moved on in different directions, and today they rarely meet.
When asked how he feels now, 20 years later, and what he wishes to say to the people back home, Schiller lets out a long breath and leans forward over his coffee. ``I want to say: `When are you going to grow up? What do you learn? How muchmore money do you throw at the contras? Who are you going to invade next?` And the next generation, like my brother`s son; in a few years he will be ready for the next Vietnam. `Do you send them? Do you not send them? Is that more cannon fodder? What do you learn?` ``
I found this article from 1989 and some parts are interview with Joel's father. So if anyone is interested here it is...
American Exiles
They Wouldn`t Fight In Vietnam, But Life In Sweden Hasn`t Brought Them Peace
January 13, 1989|By Maria Nilsson.
Despite the occasional doubts Schiller says it was a good move. A central question to all the war resisters had been whether to go back home to change opinion or to work on this from abroad. ``For what it was worth, it was good we were here,`` he says. ``Nobody listens to you in prison, but here we had a forum.``
To Schiller, that forum was the European antiwar movement, in which the war resisters formed an important part. After Carter`s pardon, in 1977, Steve Kinnaman was active in Sweden informing draft resisters and deserters about the program. (Previously, in 1974, a limited clemency was introduced by President Gerald Ford, but it was not until President Carter`s broader pardon and discharge-review programs that many war resisters, including Kinnaman, could return home.)
Kinnaman laughs as he remembers the first trip back to Indiana, using the words ``anticlimax`` and ``quaint`` to describe the clash between his expectations and his experience. ``In a sense there was the feeling of being home,`` he recalls. He appreciated seeing his family and speaking in English. But 11 years abroad had changed him.
Some time ago he noticed he was losing his English. He could no longer always find the right words. ``That made me aware of what I was losing``, he says, now with a noticeable accent in his English. ``Actually, my kids have helped me. The younger children, now 8 and 4, go to English-speaking schools, and I have to make a conscious effort to speak English with them.``
Though he has decided to stay in Sweden, he has kept his American citizenship. ``Somehow I never really gave up the thought of going back,`` he says. ``Besides, giving up your nationality is a one-shot deal. It would be almost like renouncing part of yourself.``
Kinnaman is well established and politically active in Swedish society. He is supervisor at a day-care center and the father of three daughters and a son. His oldest daughter, Melinda,
17, is an aspriring actress who appeared in a recent Swedish TV-production of a Strindberg play. She is best known, however, for a lead part in the Swedish film ``My Life As A Dog.`` His adoptive daughter, Marit, 16, played a small part in the film ``The Serpent`s Way.``
``I couldn`t deal with going back (to the U.S.),`` he says. ``It would be to start over again, and that seems a bit much after 22 years. And when you have children, it`s better and safer here in Sweden.``
During the Vietnam war, Schiller and Kinnaman were active members of the Americancommunity in Stockholm. The war and the fight for amnesty held them together. Like others remaining in Sweden, they have since moved on in different directions, and today they rarely meet.
When asked how he feels now, 20 years later, and what he wishes to say to the people back home, Schiller lets out a long breath and leans forward over his coffee. ``I want to say: `When are you going to grow up? What do you learn? How muchmore money do you throw at the contras? Who are you going to invade next?` And the next generation, like my brother`s son; in a few years he will be ready for the next Vietnam. `Do you send them? Do you not send them? Is that more cannon fodder? What do you learn?` ``