Movie Review: The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Powerful humanitarian film in a challenging time

GrapesMa Joad: You’re not aimin’ to kill nobody.
Tom Joad: No, Ma, not that. That ain’t it. It’s just, well as long as I’m an outlaw anyways… maybe I can do somethin’… maybe I can just find out somethin’, just scrounge around and maybe find out what it is that’s wrong and see if they ain’t somethin’ that can be done about it. I ain’t thought it out all clear, Ma. I can’t. I don’t know enough.
Ma Joad: How am I gonna know about ya, Tommy? Why they could kill ya and I’d never know.
Tom Joad: Well, maybe it’s like Casy says. A fellow ain’t got a soul of his own, just little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody, then…
Ma Joad: Then what, Tom?
Tom Joad: Then it don’t matter. I’ll be all around in the dark—I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look—wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build—I’ll be there, too. Continue reading

Book Review: You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (2002)

A book for people with any life threatening illness… including life
by Peter McWilliams
Review by Brian Wright

You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative ThoughtThanks to some interaction on Facebook and MySpace, I’ve discovered a whole new subculture of Peter McWilliams devotees that I had never imagined.

It was in 2002, in Anaheim, CA, I witnessed David Nolan[1] tearfully address the Libertarian Party National Convention on the subject of Peter’s lifelong struggle against tyranny—Peter died 6/14/2000, murdered by federal drug officials. I was equally moved by David’s tribute to this wonderful man, recalling David explaining that Peter Continue reading