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August 2026
1min read

Ed Sowders, a Vietnam veteran deserter who lived in the “poor people’s underground”for three years, recalled how “this community-based network of relatives, neighbors, and friends helped me remain in my own home, safe in the knowledge that they would inform me or my family of anything out of the ordinary. …” The network saved Sowders from certain arrest. Trapped in his house by FBI agents, he escaped amidst a specially choreographed pack of teen-agers with baseball bats and gloves, ostensibly heading for the neighborhood park.

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