Letters at 3 AM

These hard-hitting, heart-rendering pieces, collected from the L.A. Weekly, cover the continent’s shadow from Brooklyn to Texas and Hollywood—and across to the shores of the Gulf War. More than comments on the 1990s scene, they chronicle a civilization in agony. As media conglomerates and “correct” academic experts dominate American discourse, Ventura’s clear, no b. s. language, his ancient Sicilian passion, and his courage to speak out have become crucial to the health of the body politic.

    As Ventura writes in his New Introduction: “It’s a good time to remember that, as the essays here attest, this USA is a lively place—a place where, no kidding, the wildest dreams come true. I said ‘wild’ I didn’t say “good.” Walt Whitman, Aretha Franklin, atomic bombs, airplanes, smart phones, Buster Keaton, Barbie, Charles Manson, Dolly Parton, MLK, RBG, all kinds of wild … what threatens USA’s Constitution is wild, too, and that Constitution, which never stands still, is innately wild (have you read the Bill of Rights lately?). It is a document oppressors fear. I write these words in the year we’re to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, whether or not we deserve this USA’s Constitution—or do we have to lose it to realize, deep down, its greatness?