3/5/2009
24
Lieutenant Paul Bolang
Paul
spent his childhood in many countries and places. The dictates
of his family’s profession left him to spend his early years
in the cities of the colonies of France: Libya, Morocco, Tunisia,
Algeria, and British Palestine. He fought and played in the
streets with the children of the colonial nations. It was only natural
that he learned their languages and culture.
When
Paul was twelve, his family finally returned to Paris. His father
went there to accept the promised position he’d sought as his
life-long ambition, and Paul was forced to learn a new culture
and new way of learning. He longed for his past freedom, but he
embraced the formal education his quick mind desired. In spite
of his ready acceptance and incorporation into his own French
heritage, he found himself aggravated with his peers; he viewed
all things without the cultural boundaries they enshrined. In his
mind cultural grays turned into absolute blacks and whites. He
based his decisions on knowledge rather than traditions.