AmeriSong: Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Amerika 

Introducing the Players: A Cast of Contradictions

Let's begin by introducing the characters who appear throughout this work,
each wrestling with their own pasts, ambitions, and self-deceptions. 

Sam - A Wounded Patriot

A walking contradiction forged in the sands of Basra, Iraq. Sam is an unemployed
Iraq War veteran, a former US Army soldier whose tour (March 2003 –April 2005) ended
with a devastating roadside bomb. The IED that tore through his armored vehicle,
killing two of his comrades, and leaving him with crippling injuries tand invisible
psychological scars. Now, his days are a blur of heavy metal music, copious beer,
and aspirational computer programming classes. His current mission is simple: secure
a "decent job" with a military contractor and find a "decent lady" who appreciates
football, gaming, and high-calorie comfort food. Sam champions himself as a paragon
of traditional American values and patriotism, but the truth is muddier. Beneath the
flag-waving facade lies a man who is often lazy, self-indulgent, and motivated
mostly by profit and personal glory rather than any commitment to democracy, human
rights, or the rule of law.

Terri: An Ambitious Explorer

An inquisitive freelance writer and journalist living with her mother and chubby cat
near Washington D.C.. She was blindsided by a 1998 layoff, a professional setback
that strangely mirrors her messy personal life. Her 1991–1996 marriage to a junior
D.C. lobbyist left her with ambivalence toward men in general. While a brief 2007
relationship with Sam proved fruitless, her current fixation is Kris. Alas, those
feelings are one-way. Terri likes to think of herself as independently-minded and
prejudice-free. In reality, she isn’t quite sure of anything and regards life as an
ongoing series of question marks. Her struggle with her own contradictions is a
daily exercise, currently manifesting in a attempt to shed fifteen pounds without
sacrificing her beloved Coldstone® Ice Creams.

Ted: A Grounded Riser

A "successfull" retired veteran and head of a bustling employment agency on the
outskirts of Washington D.C. Ted served in Iraq alongside Sam, a foundational
experience that prompted to get out of the army with honorable discharge in 2006. He
leveraged his experience to start a small business dedicated to helping jobless
people find so-called "meaningful work." Now a rising entrepreneur, he boasts a
beautiful house in Virginia and a picture-perfect family: a loving wife and two
charming daughters. Ted operates with a powerful practical streak, often bordering
on the anti-intellectual, and prides himself on being a "realist" who "cuts through
bullshit." While his grounded nature is his strength, it's also a limitation. He's
often afraid to confront the deeper connections between the events in his own life
and the larger world around him, which ultimately restricts his vision and makes him
a small thinker.

Kris: A Code Warrior Thrill-Seeker

A third-generation Korean-American computer computer programmer with a need for
speed. Kris programs for a small Virginia-based game company, but her real life is
lived on the edge: parasailing, snowboarding, and kayaking—anything that delivers a
sensational rush. Despite being raised in a strict Christian household, her true
deities are more often Bugs Bunny and Ollie the Pig than any Old Testament prophets.
Battling attention deficit disorder and overwhelmed by multiple SNS involvements,
her focus is a precious, fleeting thing. But when she does manage to zero in, her
energy is phenomenal, radiating an alluring joie de vivre. Distrusting things
claiming to be profound, often she moves so fast through life that she doesn't pause
to look beneath its polished surface. Is she simply obsessed with "getting things
right," or is she relentlessly attempting to outrun her own shadow?

Tim: A Jaded Intellectual

Sam’s father and a cynical, retired professor who now spends most of his time
abroad, only returning Stateside for a once-yearly visit. Tim was once an
idealistic, new-age liberal, but his progressive vision curdled over time. The
election of Donald Trump proved to be a tipping point, permanently shattering his
belief in America. Now divorced and working as a ghost writer on various projects,
he clings to his self-image as an "intellectual." In reality, he has become a
meaningless fossil—a man whose noble-sounding, eloquent words rarely, if ever,
translate into meaningful action.

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from _AmeriSong: Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Amerika_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  A description of five friends in a collection of poems and dialog about the Dis-united States.
KEYWORDS: veteran narratives, Iraq War aftermaths, PTSD, Character-driven fiction, 
          political fiction, Washington D.C. stories, unemployed veterans

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2014 in New Taipei, Taiwan / Finished: 2025 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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