In 1959, I was editor of The Chimes, my school newspaper at Compton High School, Compton, California. For the edition that came out at the beginning of December that year, I published a box on the front page that said, “Only 24 shopping days until Ava Gardner’s birthday.” I got in a lot of trouble for that. Didn’t I know that it was Jesus’s birthday that mattered, not Ava Gardner’s? Didn’t I realize that I had published blasphemy? I don’t remember exactly how the Compton Christians punished me. It didn’t matter. I stood then, and I stand now, with Charlie.