January 2012
Nashville, Tennessee
Rita Welty Bourke
 
 
Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard

Phillip Garrido, the low-life who kidnapped eleven-year-old Jaycee Dugard and held her prisoner for 18 years, was sentenced to 431 years in prison for his unspeakable crimes.  Nancy, his wife, got 36 years.  A Stolen Life, written by Jaycee Dugard, is the story of what happened during…

The Way

The Way, starring Martin Sheen

A phone call, a flight to Paris, an unexpected journey:  these are the basic elements of The Way, a movie written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen.  The call is from a police officer in the village of St. Jean de Port, France.  He’s…

Joyce McKinney

Tabloid: A Documentary

Kidnapping, rape, guns and handcuffs, The Joy of Sex, blue silk pajamas: the new Errol Morris documentary has it all. Based on the notorious Case of the Manacled Mormon, Tabloid is a delightful film. For fully half the movie you don’t know what to believe…

Harvest Time

Battles Won, Lost, Yet to be Fought

My brother turned 65 the day Osama bin Laden was killed, but he didn’t hear about it until the next morning. By the time the President came on TV to tell the world what had happened, Fred was already asleep. The party was over, candles extinguished…

Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen

Badlands

Badlands is a film unlike any I’ve ever seen. Written, produced, and directed by Terrence Malick, the movie stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Released in 1973, it’s a dramatization of the Starkweather – Fugate crime spree of 1958 in which the couple kills 11 people, beginning with Fugate’s parents…

 

Current Events

Capitol Hill

Abortion Rights:

Abortion in America
Courage:
Hacker Republic: Fact or Fiction
FDA:
Avandia Still on the Market: Shame on You, FDA
Civil Rights:
War on Drugs or War Against the Citizenry?
Nashville:
Jury Duty
 

American Worker

Recession

Economy:

Recession
Environment:
Oil Spill In the Gulf
opinion:
Tiger Woods and the Men Who Eat at Krystals
Finances:
Check Cashing Fees
Greed:
Capitalism Run Amuck
 

Family Stories

College Reunion

college reunion:

College Reunion, 2010
Courage:
You Can Get Used to Anything
Heritage:
A Kitchen Fire and its Aftermath
Bob Welty:
Fire Ants: War to the Death
 

Fiction

Welty house

Big Muddy:

My Mother’s House
American Literary Review:
Copperhead
Antietam Review:
Hey, Good Lookin’
Witness:
Gunnison Beach