An explanation about this blog and my brother Ron's letters . . .

I'm starting to reach way back now to 1997 after I introduced my brother Ron to the internet. Shortly after that he began using email as a form of delivering his daily letters to the editors of many local and national publications – many of them published. This was all quite new to him at the time.

The readers here must understand that I manage this blog for him just so that he will continue to express what I consider to be some of the most original ideas and observations of our present culture to be found anywhere online – and also because, while he is brilliant and a gifted writer, he has no talent or interest for the tedious work of blog management. He doesn't even really know how to use a word processor! – he writes ALL his posts LIVE– he doesn't save or work with drafts – everything is written within an email text window, and always at a public library, under the pressure of time while someone else waits in line to use the public computers.

The historical references he uses in most of his letters are from his memory! He has baffled many editors, columnists and scholars for decades – not only for his prolific output, but for the obscure references that spice his letters – material that is beyond scholarly– material that leaves today's pompous over-educated scholars in the dust!

He has no debts to anyone and can express whatever he wants without fear of losing a job or status. He writes what today's "tamed intellectuals" do not have the guts to express. And all this from a man who has stolen his education – by way of spending almost very bit of his spare time through the decades in some corner of a public library.

There is so much more to say about this unique, eccentric brother of mine, but that will have to wait for another time.

For now, I need to convert all his letters prior to 1998– which presently exist only in hard copy form, into scanned OCR text so that I can post them on to this blog. This will be a tedious task, but the rich and relevant content of my brothers work makes it all worth it.

The following letter he wrote to me in 1997, may help you better understand my brothers intentions with his letter writing "project":
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"Steve, thank you for the complementary-and hopefully not TOO FLATTERING but very HELPFUL feedback. My main inspiration here is the personal discovery that I am in love with the PROCESS of composing a daily editorial or several of them . Any other motivation-a little publicity, a personal cause or obsession-just cannot stimulate DAILY OUTPUT. QUANTITY in a way becomes almost as important as QUALITY!

You cannot deceive your unconscious mind -the source of all creativity. The raw material for CREATIVE OPINION is all around you. You need not worry too much about "writers block." You must not betray that inner deity who demands that you always be true to yourself.

HUMILITY is nothing less than a basic tool of the "trade"!

I will forward my daily WORK to your computer address. I intend to compose something entertaining or outrageous or blasphemous or BRILLIANT everyday until the end of the year. Then I will see what kind of WHOLE emerges to work on . A personal computer would indeed be convenient but the library OSFN is quite adequate for my purposes.

VERY MANY THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT !"

People of the Abyss

There have been improvements in downtown Providence. If a person is not too self-absorbed and can SEE what is before his or her eyes, the person will EXPERIENCE the city-ironically.named-as one of the most depressing places in the world.

Not being a world traveller let me say that I still experience it as a most depressing place. If you catch a bus frequently in Kennedy Plaza-with Mayor Cianci's City Hall right in front of you, you will observe that the area is too often and inexcusably FILTHY.

This FILTH is our welcome to numerous visitors to our State of Rhode Island-which on the whole IS a beautiful place.

Kennedy Plaza, it seems, is a magnet to the kind of people described by Jack London as the "People of the Abyss." They are so degraded-by poverty, ignorance, a hideous life style, neglect, imbecility, and not the least by VERY BAD GENES- that they fall through the cracks of ordinary human sympathy.

Is this a new underclass or just the old one grown more numerous and visible? A generation ago most of these people would have been in mental institutions-too INCOMPETENT to care for themselves.

I do not even pretend to offer a solution to such mass wretchedness. Only a Mother Teresa can LOVE such people. She would say that God loves them. I dare not LAUGH at this most saintly woman. But why should innocent victims look so much like the DAMNED of Dante's Inferno?  

LOST SOULS EVERYWHERE-WELCOME TO PROVIDENCE !

It's 1997 – and I'm now "E-Mailing" my daily "Letters to the Editor" – What Potential!

The old fashioned way of writing a letter to the editor was time consuming and a little expensive. Today one can communicate to any editorial office in the world instantly and even free of charge.

This has nothing less than revolutionary significance for a democracy. It lowers the motivational threshold one needs to comment on local, national, and world events. 

Are newspapers trying to fit this communication revolution into old forms? 

Until last spring I use to write to your paper the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL rather infrequently. A subject had to "weigh" on my mind for days before I made the effort to write a letter -250 words please; see you next month. 

At times the letter to the editor section seemed like just a straight jacket for public opinion. A lot of competition for very limited space. I personally had no cause for complaint. More than a few of my LEFT-LIBERAL letters were generously accepted for publication.

The computer revolution renders almost absurd, however, the old restrictions on space. There is plenty of room in CYBERSPACE for everybody!

I have a suggestion: could your newspaper create A PUBLIC OPINION SITE containing virtually every letter sent to you. These letters could be transferred to disks say once a year and SOLD FOR A PROFIT!

Unpublished letters may then get some attention-and even prove worthy of it. Many of course including a few of my own-may get in CYBERSPACE the oblivion they deserve. 

But the great democratic idea is advanced– people saying what they want to say whenever they want to say it, and getting at least some public attention-be it applause or scorn! 

There may even be MONEY in it !

(this letter as all my letters that do not include address and phone, is offered only as background opinion for the editors of the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. I know I average at least one a day. Like multiple vitamins, I hope they are more HELP than HASSLE– THANK YOU! – Ron)