When I wrote about Woodstock the other day, about how I wished I had gone, a friend of mine commented that he had been there. I reminded him that I knew that. About 15 years ago, I was working on a project that never quite came to fruition, and I was writing individual chapters about …
TONY FROM WOODSON TO WOODSTOCK TO MARSHALL TO SOFIA Read More »
Love your neighbor. Unless he’s one of those gay homos. Feed the hungry. Only if they work for it. Heal the sick. As long as they have insurance. Clothe the poor. Make them pay for it. Do unto others. Before they do unto you. Give up your wealth. Hey, I worked for this. Judge not …
WOULD JESUS HIMSELF RECOGNIZE RIGHT-WING CHRISTIANS? Read More »
“This used to be a hell of a good country.”— Jack Nicholson in “Easy Rider,” 1969 I was reading an article a few years back about restaurant chains that are in danger of going out of business, and one of the ones they mentioned was Krispy Kreme. The southern donut chain expanded too far and …
As a writer, there’s one cliche that I never particularly liked. A picture is worth a thousand words. I’m not sure that’s true, but there are certainly photographs that once seen can never be forgotten. I will never forget several from Vietnam, the Viet Cong being shot in the head and the naked girl running …
I spent a good part of the day recently watching an extremely sad movie. It wasn’t intended that way when it was first released 53 years ago, but the four-hour director’s cut of “Woodstock” almost made me feel like crying. Not just for a time gone by, not just for the fact that so many …
What’s the worst four-letter word in the English language? I’ll give you a clue. It starts with the letter F. No, not that one. The word I mean, the word that truly brings out the worst in us, is fear. Not all fear is bad. Going all the way back to primitive man, one type …
If you ever find yourself wondering about the truth of the saying that only the good die young … John F. Kennedy died at age 46. His brother Bobby was only 42 when he died. Martin Luther King didn’t even make it to 40. If you want a different sort of proof, consider that televangelist …
In the summer of 1978, I visited the state where I was born, the state where I would later live for more than 20 years, for the first time since I was a year old. One of the great regrets of my life was that I never had the chance to experience Southern California in …
“My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote, ‘And even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’ “What we need in the United States is not division. what we need in the United …
Why should we love God? Not because of any particular religion, but because accepting that there is a God, one who is worthy of our love, teaches us that we are not the pinnacle of existence, and all the other good things we are and can be stem from that. Regardless of the 1968 song …
