“I wish.”

Kurt Vonnegut traveled to Biafra in 1970 and was present for the last days of the Biafran War. He made the trip as part of a humanitarian effort to provide aid to the starving Biafrans. He wrote an essay called “Biafra: A People Betrayed,” upon his return to the US. Page 143 of “Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons,” a book that brings together a number of Vonnegut’s essays and speeches from the late 60’s and 70’s, is part of that essay, which I find tremendously moving. Among many things Vonnegut summarizes in his matter-of-fact way is the plight of starving children. I tried to capture the innocence of childhood in my choice of words to highlight. -Andy Smallman