Activist Brian Willson to Speak in Meetinghouse

Brian Willson, a prominent peace activist, lawyer, environmentalist and author, will visit the Meetinghouse to talk about his new book, Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson, on Wednesday, October 26 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and is sponsored by the Fifteenth Street Meeting. The book details Willson's transformation from growing up as a conservative Baptist who was drafted to go to Vietnam, and how his experiences there led him to become a peace activist.

"In the book, I go into how we get conditioned into how we think the way we think, and why we act the way we act how it was so easy for me to obey orders that are insane, which is normal," he told the Ventura County Star prior to a similar talk this past August in California. "It became absurd to me how it is so easy to do things that are so crazy and I put that into a historical context."

The book includes 112 photos of Willson and an introduction by former U.S. military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who years ago released the top-secret Pentagon Papers to the media.

Willson came to national prominence in 1986 when he and others fasted in opposition to U.S. foreign policy in Central America. His water-only fast lasted for 47 days on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. In 1987, he was hit by a train as he protested on the tracks at the Concord Naval Station in Northern California. He and others were blocking trains carrying munitions headed for Central America.

Willson lost both legs below the knee and suffered a fractured skull and major brain injury. After four weeks in the hospital and several months of rehabilitation, he was undeterred and continued his activism. Today, he relies primarily on a three-wheeled handcycle for transportation and urges people to live a more simple, eco-friendly life.

"I don't have a TV. I don't drink beer," he said. "I read books and have potluck dinners with people and need to be expressing what I feel about the world. I just kind of resumed my life the way it was. I was given a second life, so I felt I should keep on living it."

Willson's first book, "On Third World Legs," was published in 1992.