Bends Toward Justice

In 1975, at age 18, working on issues of independence and sexual (im)maturity common at that age, hearing “wrap your legs ‘round these velvet ribs and strap your hands ‘cross my engines” moved me in ways I could never articulate.  But I knew that someone who could create that mix of toughness and tenderness, love and fear, was worth paying attention to. Bruce Springsteen still holds my attention forty-plus years later. When Darkness on the Edge of Town came out, I knew the adult concerns it addressed: manhood, work, marriage, temptation, divorce, faith.  Later, like millions of others, his concert CD boxed set inspired me to buy a CD player, and I played it a lot.  But I missed his concert in Augusta in the late 1970’s and he never came near here for the next two decades. Nearly twenty years ago my wife Meg gave me a guitar.  The first song I learned well enough to play for anyone else was Springsteen’s “Fire.”  “You can’t hide your desire;” I remained mo...

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with Steve Winwood at Fenway Park, August 30,2014 August 30, 2014, was one of those magical, timeless summer evenings in New England, the kind you wish would last forever. We were in Boston.  Boston is like a gigantic living American Flag, the North Church spire shining in the long twilight, the harbor reflecting every city light, the Pru Tower lights glowing.  Street vendors selling sausage sandwiches or hats and tee shirts outside Fenway Park .  Fenway Park !  The outline of the original grandstand is tangible, even with the additions of recent decades.  In Fenway, you can see and feel baseball history, but tonight we weren’t there for baseball. We were actually on the field.  We could touch the Green Monster and stand next to the beat up old scoreboard. Tonight it read: TOM PETTY AND HEARTBREAKERS. Beyond the Green Monster, the Citgo sign flashed neon into the sky, reminding Meg and me of one of our first dates, in ...

Chronology: The case of Walter Lett influenced Harper Lee in writing To Kill a Mockingbird. Here are the events of the case, and its connection to Harper Lee. The case began in November 1933.  "On Thursday, November 9, 1933, the Monroeville Journal reported that Noami Lowery told authorities that Walter Lett had raped her the previous Thursday.” ( "Lee, Harper: 1926 - 2016").  Just as in To Kill a Mockingbird , the accusation alone was enough for most citizens to assume guilt.  Writing for Time magazine, Daniel Levy asserts,   “Such an accusation was a death sentence for an African American man. ‘Rape was the central drama of the white psyche,’ says Diane McWhorter, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.”   Lett was captured on Saturday and jailed in another town out of fear he’d be lynched. The legal system operated quickly. “On March 16, 1934, Lett was arraigned ...