Ron is the eldest
son of the Kovic family. He is thirteen years older than I am.
Ron is the one that has made most of the spashes in the family. I
can't say that I know that much about Ron's early years. Although
they are somewhat and hastily chronicled in the movie based upon his life's
story, "Born on the Fourth of
July" that came out in 1990. (the
book was published in 1976) I guess I am somewhat of a critic of the
movie. Sure it won 2 academy awards (best editing and best director) but
it really raped the book. Read the book if you want the whole story.
The movie includes about 15% of the whole story of my brother's life.
When he came home from Vietnam in 1968 I was 8 years old and when he started
his war protesting I was already a teenager.
A few times he took me with him to a protest rally. Pretty cool though
as a 14 year old I really didn't fit in. I was moving amongst a crowd
of 25 to 40 year olds and that wasn't fun. But when I look back on
it that was something that shaped my life. Ron did take me to a benefit
concert that was put on by Harry Chapin before his death. It was
at Hofstra University I think. What happened is that Harry did a
couple of sets and then came down off the stage. I was sitting in
the front row and he came and sat right next to me while my brother got
up on the stage and began giving a speech about the things he was doing.
I couldn't believe it, right next to this guy I had listened to so many
times on the radio. It was pretty cool.
Where's Ron these days? Well, he lives in
Redondo Beach, California and is a pretty private person. Recently,
he has done a lot of humanitarian work helping homeless people and he has also produced some
interesting works of art. Click here to see them.
Othere people have written about Ron on the internet.
Click here.
|