title: Leave Me My Convictions
author: Salisbury, Jessie
description: It is 1973.
  
   The Vietnam War is dividing the country, college campuses are being disrupted, and families are being torn apart by dissension. Even love is being questioned.
  
   Earl, totally against the war and tired of arguing with his traditional-minded family, wants to stay in school and pursue his degree, but he can’t. Shortly after their last heated argument, his father died of a heart attack, and they are all blaming him because of his involvement with the campus unrest.
  
   Seeking to find peace, and settle the doubts and conflicts in his mind, Earl has taken on his father’s job of logging with a team of horses–a job he knows well but hates and has vowed to never do again. It seems to him to be the only way he can prove himself, to himself and to them, especially his brother who has served in the war, that he is not what they think.
  
   But there is Davida–beautiful, coolly blonde, and dedicated to campus takeover and a new constitution. She is urging Earl to come back to school and what she believes in; to love her and free himself from outdated traditions.
  
   And there is Marty–the quiet girl from his past. Her openly offered love has no strings attached. She is telling Earl to do what he believes is right for him, for them, and his family, to be true to himself.
  
   To do that, he must conquer a recalcitrant horse, convince those around him he is as patriotic as they are, if in a different way. And he must face the storm in his own heart and choose between two loves.