Puffin’s Place

I just saw the newish (?) documentary on Dalton Trumbo, the 40’s and 50’s Hollywood screen writer who chose defending the First Amendment over ratting out friends who joined the Communist party in the 30’s when no one else was doing squat to confront the fascists.

We will come back to Trumbo’s intellectual excellence in a minute, but first enjoy Nathan Lane’s reading of a letter Trumbo wrote to his adult son:

With a flavor of the man’s mind, wit, and facility with the language, now listed to his testimony before the House Unamerican Activities Committee during the massive red hunt that led to the Hollywood black list:

In a post, GW Bush era when we are only hesitantly emerging from the notion that everyone not with Bush/Cheyney in their absurd and illegal and life-costing antics, it is important that we remember such men as Dalton Trumbo and the narrow-brained and coercive suits that tried in vain to stifle opinions not their own. If you are too young to remember America in its red-baiting politics of the thirties and forties and fifties, you absolutely must take a look back. We are getting closer and closer to repeating it, and who knows what may lie beyond the civility and intelligence of our current president.