Editing Born on the Fourth of July (section)

==Origin==
''Born on the Fourth of July'' was written in [[Santa Monica, California]], during the fall of 1974 in exactly one month, three weeks and two days.<ref name="kovicweb">[http://pej.org/html/print.php?sid=2718 Born on the Fourth of July: The Long Journey Home] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927030105/http://pej.org/html/print.php?sid=2718 |date=September 27, 2007 }} Ron Kovic – accessed on 8 August 2005</ref> It tells the story of Kovic's life growing up in [[Massapequa, New York]], joining the United States [[United States Marines|Marine Corps]] right out of high school, going to Vietnam for two tours of duty, getting shot, finding himself paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair, and eventually starting a new life as a peace activist.

{{quote|I wrote all night long, seven days a week, single space, no paragraphs, front and back of the pages, pounding the keys so hard the tips of my fingers would hurt. I couldn't stop writing, and I remember feeling more alive than I had ever felt. Convinced that I was destined to die young, I struggled to leave something of meaning behind, to rise above the darkness and despair. I wanted people to understand. I wanted to share with them as nakedly and openly and intimately as possible what I had gone through, what I had endured. I wanted them to know what it really meant to be in a war — to be shot and wounded, to be fighting for my life on the intensive care ward — not the myth we had grown up believing. I wanted people to know about the hospitals and the enema room, about why I had become opposed to the war, why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence.|Ron Kovic, on writing his autobiography.<ref name="kovicweb" />}}