Michael Kennedy and Ethan Frome?

Bobby and Ethel with their new born son
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy (1958 - 1997

A picture in this morning's paper shows a nine or ten year old Michael Kennedy with his - to me and many others - awesome father, Senator Robert Kennedy, just before his father was assassinated after winning the California primary.

Bobby died a winner, a tough act to follow for his eleven children. They probably had to compete fiercely just for HIS attention while he was alive.

After J.F K's death in Dallas, I understand Robert was seeking answers to the BIG QUESTIONS . He read Albert Camus, the humanist existentialist, whose recurring theme was the ABSURD - to be an infinitely sensitive being in an eternally INDIFFERENT universe. Like Camus' death - he was killed in a car accident not long after he received the Nobel prize for literature- Michael's death was illustrative of the ABSURD.

If the reporting is truthful, Michael Kennedy died a rather foolish death, reckless jock playing on a dangerous ski slope. A family affair?

His father's death was a mournful martyrdom: he was perceived as a powerful friend of hated Israel by a deranged young Arab. When I first heard about Michael's death on the ski slope- colliding with a tree- I was reminded of the Edith Wharton novel, Ethan Frome.

My imagination was racing: Heartbroken and depressed he found his Corbury Hill- the perfect place to end it all. But alone with no Mattie Silver to share his fate.

My imagination was quickly checked by the next news report. Michael, a friend said, had a wonderful sense of humor and could always see the silly side of things.

They both died still quite young, Robert Kennedy and son Michael. In his moving short story "The Dead" James Joyce suggested that it is perhaps better to die in the heat of youthful passions - in full possession of one's faculties - than to merely fade pitifully into impotent and dull old age.

Care-less Carlos and "Ia revolucion"

Terrorist Carlos the Jackal to stand trial for 1975 murders

I know very little about this Carlos, the international terrorist, character. As a member of his generation, it is clear to me that he- pitiful as he now is - was shaped by the late Sixties.

I was warned before going to an anti-war rally in downtown Providence by my "petty bourgeois" newsman brother that it was completely controlled by communists. At the time I was innocent of left wing politics - just anti-war.

The rally -for the time - was peaceful enough. No bomb throwers in sight. In the Sixties you learned that lunacy was relative. There was the lunacy of the RIGHT - completely abhorrent - and the lunacy
of the LEFT- often forgivable.

After the rally a leaflet invited me to a meeting on the bastion of radicalism - the Brown University campus. To be debated: "Leninism vs. Stalinism"

Within a few months I was speaking the language of American Trotskyism myself. Today I am still rather fond of the "Old Man" but it does not seem likely that his theory of Permanent Revolution will be verified.

I am deeply grateful, however, for one of his propaganda pieces : "Against Individual Terrorism".

Leon Trotsky absolutely would have rejected the Carlos delusion that a few well aimed shots - and a few grandiose explosions - can make the world a more just place.

What is the use of POLITICS if dynamite can do the job? I feel sorry for you Carlos - and for your tragic victims !

Is H.P. Lovecraft's Body Missing?

(a 10/1997 letter to Ron Marshall)

Good morning Ron! As a member of the Lovecraft circle here in Providence for many years, I know you would be very disturbed by today's headline in the Providence Journal: "New Lovecraft mystery surfaces at Swan Point".

You and I have made frequent visits to the gravesite ourselves. At times we observed petty but disrespectful vandalism there ourselves. The atmosphere around H.P grave is for me eerie reminder of the cult horror film, "The Night of the Living Dead"

Lovecraft himself was a dignified scholar, indeed a philosophical Materialist, and would have scorned many silly cult groups inspired by his brilliant horror fantasies. I wonder what S.T Joshi thinks about this latest abominable deed.

According to the paper: "Cemetery president Dugan declines to elaborate on the grave desecration not wanting to attract more attention. "But–Is he there?" - he is asking himself.

I'm sure H.P would have delighted in writing a horror story dealing with a suitable punishment for
anybody trying to rob his pitiful remains - for what? A profitable sensation?

In one modest way I would like to imitate H.P Lovecraft: perhaps I can write 100,000 letters myself. If one tenth of them were worth reading!

But all of them are FUN writing!

"The oldest and strongest emotion of
mankind is fear, and the oldest and
strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
 - H.P. Lovecraft

Religion in Russia

Is Boris Yeltsin the only significant person in Russia who appreciates Western Civilization's concept of religious freedom? He alone, it seems, just saved this precious thing in Russia. By power of veto!

There was overwhelming sentiment in both houses of parliament to make the Russian Orthodox Church the official one in that vast and troubled country. What an unholy alliance! Communists and religious bigots!

In a way the leaders were trying ,no doubt, to protect their old culture. Our idea of separation of Church and State is as fundamental as the idea of "CHECKS AND BALANCES" in government. It was a colossal mistake for the old communist regime to even preach a definite philosophy- dialect materialism to the masses.

People everywhere hunger for deeper meaning and purpose in their uninspired, humdrum lives. But it is not any government's job to supply it! No government in the world can tell us how to be happy, or even good.

April 2007: An Orthodox priest stands next
to the coffin of former Russian President
Boris Yeltsin in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral
in Moscow.

Only FOOLS will seek ultimate meaning in some political order. Our form of democracy is the best way to protect human dignity. That is all we can ask of it. And that is enough! We can leave all the rest to the world's great religions or to the solitary human heart.

I AM AGE 50 TODAY!

I am 50 years old today. I have had ten years to think about it. I remember turning 40. Last night I was in a Greta Garbo mood: " I JUST WANT TO BE ALONE!"

A semi-sweet melancholy. When I awoke this morning the sun was shining brilliantly in a clear blue sky. Nature, of course, is utterly indifferent to our birthdays. In my existential point of view, the COSMOS itself is utterly indifferent to our lives. I would like very much to believe in the FORCE but there is no evidence for it. 

Perhaps the FORCE believes in me! I am no saint but nobody would call me a scoundrel. I have maintained close friendships with a few precious human beings. A bachelor by fate or choice, I still cherish my now very extended family . I have no personal enemies and no heinous deeds on my conscience. 

I am a rare bird on this planet-a truly free man! The world does not seem a very happy place to me. But it is a very interesting place. Curiosity alone can keep somebody like me going for a long time . I have laughed at AMBITION all my life (inspired by the ideas of Albert Camus). And AMBITION, of course, has laughed right back ! 

If the GRIM REAPER were to knock on my door tonight, I would say, "But I am not ready!" "I have not achieved my PURPOSE."  "What purpose?" He might ask scornfully.

"Why as passionately as any of King Arthur's knights, I AM STILL SEEKING THE HOLY GRAIL". 

Maybe that will buy me time.

Washington Park and Cultural Suicide

"The Old Neighborhood" Painting by Edward Farber

Whenever I pass through the Washington Park area of Providence where I lived for more than twenty years, I am reminded of a haunting short story by Theodore Dreiser, "The Old Neighborhood".

How different it was just 25 years ago. What decay now! Memorable people replaced by sullen hordes of ignorant and obnoxious immigrants-lacking the character of previous generations of immigrants- truly the scum of the earth! Filth and decadence is their element. Denizens of Hell, nearly all of them.

Charming stores with a little class replaced with tawdry, sinister shops. "What is the REAL business here?" I wonder.

Everywhere to be seen, glazed eyed maniacs. Drug addicts? Washington Park -once a quiet, respectable neighborhood right out of "Leave It To Beaver"- now just a stray, seedy piece of New York City. Not one place sacred in my memory has survived intact, as I remembered it.

There were in those days several supermarkets in the area, nearest the Weybosset Pure Foods.

Broad St. School

A Mason's Pharmacy- where I read Science Digest articles while sipping on vanilla cokes. The Palace Theater where I recall seeing movie classics like "West Side Story", "To Kill A Mocking Bird", and the scariest movie of my youth, "The Curse Of Frankenstein".

Ace Wall Paper & Paint where my older brother and I bought model airplanes. (he was so much more skilled at assembling them!) Carter's Candy Store where I would treat myself to eye-appealing delights. How I liked that "bark candy".

Roger Williams Park Museum
of Natural History & Planetarium

A Four barber Barber Shop, AL's - always very busy on Saturdays. Haircuts- one dollar! St. Paul's Church was just a ten minute walk away. (The vitriolic scoldings of old Monsignor Cannon- people coming in too late. The impassioned sermons of a young Father Behan. He looked a lot like Mickey Mantle.)

Roger Williams Park was our back yard. My class visits to the Planetarium - the Sputnik era. There were real row boats you could rent back then. Today you have those ridiculous paddle boats.

The Boat House at Roger Williams Park

Today even Newport Creamery is gone. How many coffee cabinets consumed there - and the early adolescent girl watching.

Most of all there were the neighbors– real neighbors, people that you would know if not love for years. Where are they all today? Where was the only guy who advertised his support for Nixon? He was harassed!

Broad Street School looks as imposing as ever. I remember the baseballs games in the school yard. The number of fine baseballs lost on the roof- home runs! Teachers that made a difference. A few that humiliated!

The Washington Park Library is drab looking now. How many intellectual adventures begun there.
There were Boy Scouts (Troop 7) at the Methodist Church. Any scouts around today? A sordid memory of one obscene encounter there. Where is "he" today?

A friendly black postman named Reggie. A German shepherd dog who bit me on the chin ( I needed stitches) A noisy boxer named Mike ( annoying on hot summer nights ) The owner a rather violent man who routinely "kicked ass", mostly his son's, my friend. He was also a talented painter "of sailing ships."

The old lady across the street named Sadie who told us stories of her girlhood and whose husband died a miserable death from cancer. The middle aged housewife next door- my first encounter with madness in front of her lilac bush.

The neighborhood began to undergo an irreversible decline in the mid-Seventies. Mostly though truly PLEASANT memories of BETTER TIMES, of YOUTH. My infatuation with a particular girl I would see every morning in the coffee shop– Murphy's. A character named Chubby ran the place. He died of a heart attack at age 50! I went to the wake and could not recognize this fun loving devil in the eulogy.

But today look at Washington Park, look at the ruin of it. If anybody doubts the reality of Cultural Suicide, let him visit Washington Park and talk to the old time residents.

Roger Clemens is missed!

The pain of it! The sports page today is all about Roger winning his 18th game of the season. In Providence the "home team " is still the Boston Redsox. In Maine too–ask Stephen King.

Not since Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees has there been a greater betrayal of the FANS. A four time Cy winner-yes he'll get it-given an ignominious ADIOS by Boston management !

A big motivation to go to Fenway Park-one of a few classic ball parks left-is gone.

When my nephew Nick was a young little league pitcher (he looked a little like a young Roger Clemens; and could throw a little like him too) I warned him that the Boston Red Sox specialized in breaking the hearts of the fans. The 1986 World Series is just one bad memory!

Now he is 18 and knows just what I mean!

Some random thoughts in 1997

1. Brown professors, it seems, have a habit of making public asses of themselves. As a scholar he may subscribe to some school of higher criticism which always ignores the text itself.
2. There are just too many professional unmaskers of racism and sexism out there.
3. Sorry Joe, the check is not in the mail.
4. These unkind and insensitive comments of adults are like little sprinkles of acid on growing flowers. They leave their mark!
5. Political Correctness is just a polite euphemism for Left Wing McCarthyism.
6. I spotted the scholarly priest in the lobby of Fatima Hospital a few weeks ago. I was reminded of his TV program which was always lively and interesting- and on a higher moral plane than myself,of course.
7. It is possible for a plain fact to be politically incorrect: Africa,for example. never contributed anything to Civilization. And today it is still THE HEART OF DARKNESS.
8. Is it possible, I asked, for an author to have a political agenda and still be telling the truth about a very important matter?
9. The human soul– whether it is mortal or immortal- is sacred to me. People have an absolute right to think and feel whatever they will about controversial issues.
10. The politically correct crowd is beginning to feel the counter-attack. And it will be furious!
11. Curiosity– divine curiosity- is one of the few emotions that cannot be faked. We can fake so many things- love for the masses, friendship, devotion to this or that fatuous cause; we can even fake sexual passion.
12. For a while in my adolescence proving geometric theorems was literally one of my hobbies.
13. Remember June 6,1944? Pop complained that there was not a single article recalling that momentous day in 1944. I believe now that World War II was the decisive event of the 20th century. A while back I would have said that it was the Russian Revolution that was the major event of the century.
14. A man who can be described as a strict constitutionalist threatens to torch Old Glory if the flag burning amendment is passed. A little melodramatic, is he not? I recommend a pleasant walk in the park instead. If the ludicrous amendment is approved,it will only put a few more bucks into the pockets of ACLU lawyers.
15. One way for the mass media to combat racism, sexism, or any form of prejudice is to introduce us to various people who really know something.
16. I am surprised to learn that LBJ was involved in a plot to kill Martin Luther King. Really? What brainless paranoia! The truth is that LBJ was the best friend the blacks ever had in this country.
17. What difference does it make -black, white, hispanic, male, female, gay, straight– the profit game is inherently ruthless.
18. I will continue to read your paper because life is inseparable from trash anyway. I refuse to be bored!
19. There should be a postage stamp honoring H.L Mencken. He treated everybody with equal contempt.
20. As I have no reputation to protect, I signed for the gay porn film myself.
21. Anybody who tells me he watches more than an hour of commercial TV per day is telling me that he resides on the left-wing of the Bell Curve. Some left wingers are quite stupid.
22. The planet's red glare gave proof through the night that our future was still out there.
23. In the absence of great challenges, human beings seldom rise above the level of chattering monkeys.
24. Michael Chippendale and his "real American" friends are prepared to meet in the street the Brown University Trotskyists and their rag-tag following of lazy, welfare recipients. If he is patient and waits just a few years, he will no doubt meet the whole subversive Ivy League gang on Wall Street.
25. How many math teachers have read Morris Kline's helpful book,"Why Johnny Can't Add"? Too many math teachers are scientifically illiterate. They cannot connect the dry, tedious textbook examples with the more exciting every day world.
26. We human beings have a divine right to be our inconsistent, rebellious, slightly daffy selves.
27. Tail-Gunner Al. As the guns were going off I recalled his frequent lament: "There There is no justice. There is no justice." We left a little note at the grave site: "AI, we hope you find JUSTICE in the next world".
28. Before we crucify Mr. Pine, let us consider another source of titillation: It is not for nothing that Rhode Island is considered the natural habitat of the drunk.
29. The argument about human nature undermining any conceivable utopia carries more weight with me nowadays.
30. I consider the Gus Hall crowd to be a bunch of Stalinist without Stalin. I don't care if the whole world knows that I read "commie" newspapers. I have a big plastic, orange pumpkin where Comrade Dave can deposit the subversive paper. I was in fact worried that the neighbors would think that I was in the pornography business.
31. The new immigrants arouse as much sympathy in me as green eyed snakes. They are as sensitive as vultures- always looking for the main chance.
32. I graduated from the Community College of Rhode Island at age 29 with the help of a few welfare checks.
33. This library computer that I am using to E-Mail you was a total mystery to me until a few months ago. (the FEBRUARY REVOLUTION)
34. One glaring evil of the present system is hereditary wealth. Nobody should be allowed to inherit more than $100,000. In a democratic society privilege without obligations has no right to even exist.
35. The nutritional needs of human beings are really quite modest. The mass media should use its power to synthesize bourgeois compassion. (Mr. Feinstein)
36. One telling detail: He was found naked in his bedroom in the fetal position.
37. I have read a whole book on the phenomenon of political correctness. Should the author be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Shallowness?
38. Gay Pride is utter rubbish! I have read "Death in Venice". The middle aged protagonist is hopelessly attracted to a young male beauty and also corrupted by that attraction.
39. Can a shameful man like Father Dunn- the rapist tormenter of a pitiful incest victim who came to him for help– can he be NOT GUILTY from a cosmic point of view?
40. Angry white males have not yet appeared on any politically correct victims list.
41. Would he have dared to suggest that the loathsome monster Craig Price be tortured ?
42. If she were not a victim of childhood polio, should Mr. Gray have referred to her as a beneficiary of it?
43. Deep down a lot of GAY behavior is just self-indulgent narcissism.
44. At what point in the evolution of our species from monkey to homo-sapiens did FREE WILL suddenly appear?
45. You can be sure the writer of this E-Mail will not be running for President in the future!
46. Our ideas and opinions should be a generous gift or affliction on the human race. Are we not already borderline charlatans when we attach a price tag to them?
47. Joe has a notion that the news we have been getting for years now is just WHITE NEWS. There is no such thing as professional journalism or even objective truth.
48. It would not surprise me if I read in tomorrow's newspaper that cosmologist Stephen Hawking wishes to become an ordained priest!
49. At first I thought it was all just right-wing blather. The book "Illiberal Education" opened my eyes.
50. Caesar's adventures in Gaul did not seem so irrelevant to me now. They reminded me of Vietnam.
51. The working class still does not want to be SAVED by Socialism. They want to be middle class.
52. Listening to JOE FROM COVENTRY on talk radio is truly wallowing in DEMOCRACY.
53. The white trash side of me compels more belligerent language.
54. It must be very trying to be a newspaper editor nowadays. All that sensitivity out there.
55. The last real philosopher king in this century was Lenin. In many ways he was a truly GREAT MAN but a disaster for the human race. It is about time they literally buried the poor devil.
56. The wise doctrine of separation of CHURCH and STATE continues to keep this society from blowing itself apart.
57. What I intend to promote- with or without anybody's permission is good, old fashioned FREE THINKING in the spirit of British philosopher Bertrand Russell.
58. Has not the 20th Century demolished all ideologies?
    
    
    

Mozart on Prozac

My not so little circle of friends, relatives, and acquaintances must constitute a "random sample" of the population. More than a few in this circle are taking some kind of anti-depressants.

A must read for people interested in the more extreme form of clinical depression is William Styron's book, "Darkness Visible". He was saved from the BLACK ABYSS by the RIGHT anti-depressant drug in just the right doses. You might ask if the drug affected his artistic sensitivity. But in any case he was pitifully non-functional in the extreme depressed state.

What may be alarming is the number of people taking anti-depressants just to cope with everyday life. Thinking about the individuals I know who admit needing them, I sense a certain loss of edge. I hear about things in their life that would simply break my heart if they were my burden.

Isn't it just better to FEEL? I reflect. To feel SAD is sometimes better for you than simply feeling in control. If a person is in some CREATIVE line of work, he or she has simply got to FEEL to produce anything. Feel HAPPY. Feel Sad. Feel Angry. Feel Miserable. Feel Hurt. Feel Jealous.

Is there a (my paranoia) CONSPIRACY to make the FEELING person obsolete? All this medication helps people to ADJUST and COPE when maybe if they LISTENED to their FEELINGS, they would REBEL instead.

Great ART may soon be a thing of the PAST because it is inspired by GREAT FEELING and indeed inspires GREAT FEELING. What modem music speaks to the soul?

Often when I begin to read a book or view a movie, I say to myself: "There is nobody here I can give a damn about because they arouse no FEELINGS, although they may "entertain". Can anybody imagine Mozart on PROZAC?

Dying at age 122

Years ago a friend of the family would now and then show up at the house more than a little drunk burned up over his mother-in law who lived at his house. He would take out a switch-blade knife and
say in a gangster tone of voice, "I'll kill her! But she won't die. She's TOO ROTTEN TO DIE! " 

Later, a little calmed down, he would say, "She'll be a pall bearer at my funeral!" "Nonna" was indeed around for a while. But just about everybody but our "guest" thought she was NICE.

Jeanne Calment finally died at age 122. She gave up cigarettes in 1995 ! Even that vile stuff couldn't deliver her to her Maker. She outlived her husband (which is the norm) but also her daughter and grandson. 

Jeanne, after a certain very impressive age was made a fuss over and said she was "never bored." 

But ordinary old people seem not just old but often broken hearted. In not a few cases of extreme old age the person has the "advantage" that there was never any "heart" there to break !

When I was sixteen years old a gypsy fortune teller at Rocky Point Park-of dear memory-told me that I would live to be 150 years old. ( Eat your heart out Jeanne Calment!) But that just cannot be. For I am a sentimental slob!

Jeanne Louise Calment; 21 February 1875 – 4 August 1997 was a French supercentenarian who had the longest confirmed human lifespan on record, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days.She lived in Arles, France.

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":
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"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)