Zepp's Last Stand

I absolutely loved the style in which Blais wrote this piece. She offers no opinion or bias which allows the reader to decide whether to embrace this curmudgeon or reject him as a hypocrite. The ending clearly demonstrated the two sides of Zepp -- a man "wanting to do things the Christian way" versus a man willing to punch "someone around." The description of Zepp today at 83 years of age with the comparison of him 60 years prior helps the reader to imagine the 83 year old riding the rails toward D.C. and his Pentagon hearing and the 23 year old man sitting in the stockade in 1919. The man I originally thought of as a sweet, kind 83 year old gentleman in his "carefully chosen business suit" is soon revealed to also be a "son of a bitch." Zepp is a feisty individual who was married three times but openly confesses to only love his last wife. Blais takes us back and forth from the train ride and meeting in the present, 1979, to his experiences in the army from 1917-1919. The reader sees that Zepp is a man who hasn't changed much in 60 years, since the initial confrontation with the military. She exposes the contradictory shift from a C.O. who professes his love of God and justice to a man who's so angry at the one person who voted against him that he'd like to "bust his head wide open." She portrays Zepp not as a superman but as a man. I loved this feature story.