Is Howard right about Jeff Pine?

I recall some months ago reading with astonishment in the Providence

    Journal Attorney General  Jeffrey Pine's suggestion that mass murderer

    Timothy McVeigh be tortured. There was nothing in his past to suggest

    that he had a malignant character defect- a propensity for sadism perhaps?

      So I concluded that it was all brainless PR directed AT the "the ethical

    basement of the universe " to use Howard Lisnoff's descriptive words for

    Rhode Island in his March 28 letter to the editor.

       Again Mr. Pine has merited the wrath of Howard over the stiff sentence

    given to 15 year old Jessica Gonzalez for " brutal,cold killing ". He

    sees " racism " as a factor here.

        When Mr. Pine announced his resignation from his job -citing financial

    pressures to earn more money for his growing family- I suspected that

    the simply truth was that he was burned out. He is- I think - neither

    a sadist ( McVeigh is white ) or a racist. He IS a casualty of the

    office. You LOSE with the public if you are " wimpy ". And you LOSE if

    you are " tough ".

       In the final analysis the PHILOSOPHY of the law is the culprit. In

    sentencing a 15 year old to virtual life in prison, there is an ethical

    assumption at work not different from that of THEOLOGY : that EVIL is

    rooted in the depths of the INDIVIDUAL SOUL even at a very young age.

       This assumption only perpetuates the office of chief prosecutor.EVIL

    - not to dismiss personal responsibility altogether- has deep SOCIAL

    roots. Society has barely begun to understand this. It is still CHEAPER

    to build more prisons.

Imelda Marcos and her kind -cannibals!

     Imelda Marcos of the Philippines -according to this morning's news-
has more than $800 million stashed in foreign banks.And she promised to
give it all to the poor-but only if she is elected president. Her husband,
dictator Ferdinand, died in 1989 " accused of plundering about $10 billion
from the national treasury..".
   You are still CHEATING the poor dear Mrs. Marcos. What you and your
" anti-communist " mate stole from the poor of your country, perhaps
weighs down on your " Catholic " conscience a little in your old age. Too
bad you can not take it ALL with you !
   Like most very wealthy people the world has a right to ask you : What
did YOU ever DO to deserve it ? In the final analysis all wealth is the
product of our collective,mental and physical labor. Any man or woman-
possessing one body,no matter how wonderful, and one brain, no matter how
brilliant - has no ethical claim on millions of dollars.
   Deep down the fabulously wealthy -even those not legally corrupt-
know this. So they employ public relations people to show them off as
generous friends of the have-nots . Any honest government would tax their
inherently criminal wealth so much that they would think twice before
buying even a dozen pairs of expensive shoes.

     There was an old woman
       who could live on her shoes,
   Who had so much wealth-
       that a few more
   she could never refuse !

   I also read this morning an unusually horrible story out of Huejutla,
Mexico. A lynch mob hanged two men suspected of kidnapping four young
girls- ages 4 to 12- for the hideous purpose of selling their body
organs to some rich man in Texas.
   In general that is the essence of great wealth everywhere - the
rich are cannibalizing on the poor!
   Should they all perhaps fear the MOB ?

Psycho-babble on school killings

GOOD MORNING!

       After the horrible killings - a 13 year old and an 11 year old with

    readily available guns open fire on classmates and teacher -Hollywood

    Movie style - as usual after the killings the psycho-babble. A lot of it

    just common sense hardly demanding a PHD : "...kids these days are not

    getting the social and emotional learning they need." Dr.Laura can tell

    us this every day on Talk Radio.

       Would compulsory lectures in elementary school on " getting it all

    together " assure us that these crazy kid homocides will never happen

    again?

       True enough ignored, angry, troubled kids are TRAGEDY WAITING TO HAPPEN!

    But the sanest and most humane society would not have enough counselors

    and psychiatrists for individual therapy.

       The root of the problem is one of the most terrible inventions of all

    time- the GUN.  I remember reading somewhere the definition of man as " a

    tool making animal ". The mere possession of a gun will CHANGE your

    personality whatever it is  genetically. You possess the GREAT EQUALIZER.

    With it you can take on ANYBODY who gets in your way. Big pest or little

    pest- what difference does it make ?

       Your TOOLS change YOU! I remember keeping a baseball bat under my

    bed in a rooming house after an encounter with intruders.

       But I did not like my new personality - the guy with the baseball bat.

    I just moved out. The PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PERSONALITY in action!

Wilhelm Reich Redux

     A letter was published in your paper that found a measure of merit


    in the  old superstition that masturbation causes blindness.I remember

    reading a book in my early twenties that made a deep impression on

    me: Wilhelm Reich's " Sexual Revolution ". I recall it began with

    this rather startling sentence :" Happiness in life is primarily

    sexual happiness". Of course it is easier to believe the younger you

    are! I'm not sure I agreed with Mr. Reich even way back then. But this

    point of view had a measure of merit.

       He was a courageous - or some might say depraved champion of the

    " sexual rights of adolescents". He advanced quite respectable arguments

    connecting the sexual repression of youth with the economic structure

    of society. Sexual repression  he thought helped create the " authoritarian

    personality. "  In George Orwell's " 1984 " we have the ridiculous

    " Anti-Sex League ". The hero of novel, Winston Smith, concludes that

    the crude and " vulgar " sex act was indeed a rebellion against Big

    Brother. His girl friend in her own unsophisticated way agreed : after

    a sexually fulfilling union you didn't care about " all their rot ", thought

    Julia. Winston concluded that paradoxically the " animal " in you

    could preserve your " humanity".

        I am no advocate of sexual anarchy in the Age of Aids. But the

    tragedy of the modern plague is that it set our thinking back a whole

    century on the subject of the sexual liberation of young people.

       I am a great believer in RATIONAL sexual repression. It can keep you

    out of a life time of trouble! But I still deplore this medieval reaction

    in our midst.

         I do nevertheless recommend that the real danger of deadly disease

    compel hot blooded youth to find  HAPPINESS in many things,

Supreme Court should be abolished

      How long are we going to brainlessly believe that the fossilized

    institution known as the Supreme Court is vital to our " democracy "?

    With few exceptions it most often represents the most dried up, conservative

    influences of the social order. Even today they are capable of a modern

    version of the Dred Scott decision. During the Great Depression they

    were more concerned with the dessicated legalism of their bombastic,

    inflated role than with the calamity all around them. How right F.D.R.

    was to undermine these dinosaurs. I understand he had mental reservations

    when he took the oath of office. He could not uphold or defend the

    Constitution THEY represented! Sure enough they nearly succeeded in

    destroying his New Deal. The old fools ,no doubt, saw themselves as

    the Establishment's bulwark against " socialism " !

       They do not belong in the America of the 21st Century. Their sanctimonious

    drivel on major issues is as anachronistic in form and content as the

    proceedings of the Spanish Inquisition.

        Other world democracies are quite healthy- and stable- without the

    equivalent of our Supreme Court. Let the people who are democratically

    elected interpret the law of the land, not in any absolute way, but in

    accordance with the changing needs of the times.

         Put those black robes of un-democratic AUTHORITY into the American

    Smithsonian!

           The latest blunder of the Supreme Court - subjecting an incumbent

    President to distracting- and petty- legal harassment - should be their

    very last blunder.

        The Court must be abolished!

A scout is TRUTHFUL

The lesser " supreme " courts are just as ossified and doomed as THE

    Supreme Court. According to the lights on the California Supreme Court

    two sixteen year olds- Michael and William Randall -can be excluded

    from the Boy Scouts because they do not have a conventional belief in

    God. Also homosexuals can be excluded.

        Grieg Shields, spokesman for the Scouts, thinks that atheist cannot

    possibly uphold the " moral values " of the 88 year old organization.

       Mature adults would naturally avoid organizations incompatible with

    their ideas and opinions. But in this case mere children are being

    unfairly ostracized from their peer group.

        Why are the Randall twins atheists at 16 anyway ? No doubt because

    their parents are atheists ? So the kids are taught very early in life

    that the NICE, DECENT religious people will punish them vindictively

    for something as " family" related as the color of their skin.

       The moral beauty of the devout!

      I was a Boy Scout and on the whole benefitted from the experience. But

    it is certainly news to me that they are not a business. The Boy Scouts

    MAKE money for a lot of people.


         How confident is an organization in its fundamental beliefs if it

    must exclude non-conforming children ? Are they a contagion? Will the

    majority of WHITE sheep have no influence on the BLACK sheep?

      I concluded a long time ago that people with IRRATIONAL beliefs do not

    want to argue with you. No, they want to eliminate your influence, to

    put you out of the picture.

       Our society is controlled by people who say they are " democratic "

    but who -just watch them! - hate and fear IDEAS !

Boorish Yeltsin fires the government!

It is that easy : you can just fire the government!. What kind of

    "democratic " constitution does  Russia ? . In Western history we read

    about a king dismissing  Parliament -and that is usually a prelude to

    civil war. Does the ex-communist Boris Yeltsin think that he can be

    a " free enterprise " Stalin ? He is deluding himself. Monster that he

    was Joseph Stalin 's tyranny could guarantee the poor masses a minimum

    of security. " Equality in poverty " was perhaps easier for the masses

    to bear than the present reckless and lawless contempt of Russia's New

    Rich for the " socialist " past.

        It is unlikely that such a phony " capitalist " class in Russia

    could ever win the respect of the military- once the pride of the nation

    that was not too long ago a super power.

       Remember the national psychology - the wounded pride of veterans - that

    was a big factor in the rise of Hitler's National Socialism in the Germany

    of the 1920s.

        Since the Bolshevik Revolution destroyed Russia 's upstart capitalist

    class, there was in the last decade no raw material for a new wealthy

    class, apart from the privileged Soviet bureaucracy. Ironically the

    new wealthy in Russia must have been connected to the former communist

    elite. Indeed to the most corrupt and unprincipled layer of it !

       In his classic work " The Revolution Betrayed ", Leon Trotsky predicted

    that the privileged Stalinist bureaucracy would eventually lead the

    country back to capitalism . He described the nation back then as a

    " degenerated workers' state ".

        Russia is still today the dialectician's nightmare of " inner contradictions
     It still has a messianic sense and nuclear weapons !

Alternative to affirmative action?

I concluded from a Left point of view years ago that affirmative

    action programs only fan the flames of racism, and do very little to

    correct it. Nevertheless it is disturbing to my sense of justice that

    all of a sudden NO black faces are appearing on the campuses of the

    " better " colleges ".

        The problem as I see it this : Working class whites were paying the

    bill for these affirmative action programs . Our capitalist society

    demands a ground down, low wage " nigger " class. Affirmative action

    programs simply declassed many working class whites. As a result racial

    relations deteriorated.

       Many grievances of blacks - which seem like mere paranoia from the

    perspective of RACE- make perfect sense from the perspective of CLASS.

       Jesse Jackson had the right idea all along - a " rainbow coalition "

    of the WORKING CLASS - is the key to effectively fighting essentially

    CLASS oppression.

        If the rich are getting fabulously richer - and show no sign that

    they give a thought to social justice- this means that there are no

    moral or ethical ties that bind the social classes together in a unified

    society with some COMMON PURPOSE.

       This bleak truth should be reflected in the political activity of the

    working class.

        We should let the well-heeled folks know that there social order

    is no more unsinkable than the Titanic. ( their order )

         CLASS POLITICS should be the wave of the future in the U.S.A.

Watching the thieving worker

      " You know the bartenders are not going to like it ", Mike Mogdam,

    president of Barmate Corp. said in the N.Y. times. Mogdam invented

    a computer guided electronic system that lets bar owners track every

    drop of booze.

        Why should bar tenders like such an affront to their integrity ?

    It is no surprise that in enterprises where workers are most exploited

    - bars and restaurants - the owners are most suspicious of being robbed.

    When this does occur it can best be described as a " redistribution of

    the surplus product ".

       Are workers in general getting RICH nowadays at the expense of the

    capitalist owners ? Just the opposite is happening. And government is

    doing very little to correct the injustice,

         From the government workers have been getting this message : " We

    owe you nothing ! "

       From business workers have been getting the same contemptuous message:

       " We owe you nothing ! "

     The law of life, of nature -of course - is that the workers owe themselves

    their fair share of the economic pie - which in theory at least ( remember

    the labor theory of value ? ) may be the WHOLE PIE !

       Marx said long ago that " vampire like, Capital wishes to squeeze

    every drop of blood from the working class ".

        It is nothing less than incredible to hear owners of bars and

    restaurants whine about how they are being cheated by the " low-life "

    help. Of course the wages paid out guarantee a " low life " for the help.

      Kids are exploited abominably in the fast food chains especially. They

    should have UNION protection and health benefits. No more minimum

    wage for such blatant exploitation !

       A Labor Party should be created to monitor every drop of wealth the

    capitalists steal from the workers !

Accused does not equal guilty

A number of women letter writers seem to forget that President

    Clinton has been accused of sexual harassment-mostly by the type of

    female that thrives on it,and that the accusation is not tantamount

    to guilt.

        The testimony of SIX such females could not convict the army's top

    enlisted man of sexual harassment.

       Perhaps the idea of " sexual harassment " is inherently vague and

    subjective and therefore should be erased from the law books. Replaced

    by the more general notion of " harassment ".

       What might be " harassment " in the  fluffy mind of one female may

    be perceived as " romance " by another bimbo.

       Where is the feminist image of a strong, independent woman who can

    just say NO to the irresistible male ? How can these eternal " victims "

    ever achieve the feminist goal of INDEPENDENT character ?

       Is it true perhaps that no matter how well educated a woman, she

    never really leaves the kitchen and the bedroom ?


       The women voters should STAND BY THEIR MAN - Bill Clinton !

N.Y Times letters- for snots only!

Reading your published letters year after year, I cannot help

    noticing how monotonously alike they all seem in style or tone. The

    very same hack editor cannot account for this . Perhaps SOCIALLY these

    individuals whose letters are likely to appear in the prestigious New York

    Times are as alike as the shoes of Mrs. Marcos of the Phillipines.

        WHO, I wonder is reading this letter today - a self-important , high

    society prig or some painfully ANONYMOUS hack, whose mission is to keep

    the VULGAR out of sight?

        I suspect there is a REBEL in everybody . If you are a frustrated

    Rebel - who is sick of THEM, please let me know. I KNOW one does not

    write letters to the New York Times but -in fact - to some poor soul

    with an ulcer SICK OF IT ALL .

        If YOU would rather be in a bar now than reading the drivel of the

    well healed, let me know. It won't ruin your career to do something

    a little impish now and then - just for a laugh !

      I am betting my federal income tax return - about $900,00 that YOU

    will TELL ALL JUST FOR A LAUGH .

       Have a nice day anyway . My regards to your mother in law !

     I expect to see this letter published in your newspaper on April Fools

    Day. Do not disappoint me. I may be President some day !

The politics of literature

       Two black school board members in a San Francisco district, Steve

    Phillips and Keith Jackson, would require that non-white authors

    dominate the literature requirements in high school English classes.

    That 7 of the 10  books be authored by non-white.

         If we reflect that what distinguished great from mediocre literature

    is its enduring power to interest, move, and inspire human beings simply

    as human beings, no harm is done by such  ethnic concentration.

       If the assigned books arouse the student's interest in the whole

    world of literature, then the English teacher has achieved one of his

    or her main goals. Great literature - no matter by whom it is written-

    is never crudely propagandistic even when it is a highly subjective

    interpretation of the author's life experiences.

       If a book is both entertaining and rings true , the reader will soon

    discover independently. It just takes a little patience and openness to

    another's soul.

        It is a commonplace but profound truth that the human heart has been

    the same everywhere and for many centuries now. The long dead of ancient

    Egypt, Athens, and  Rome can - if we listen to them through the voice

    of our common humanity- still instruct us with their hard won wisdom.

       I myself  have been very influenced by the Stoic philosophy of the

    Roman writer Seneca. In English literature, I cannot imagine dispensing

    with writers who are white European or American males and females - and

    also dead for centuries.

         The Autobiography of Malcolm X has touched me just as deeply. Even

    though there is no lack of " rubbish " here, it will survive as great

    literature.

         Who reads James T. Farrell  nowadays or Theodore Dreiser on their

    own, not as a wearisome course assignment? I do ! The world they describe

    to my imagination fits in very well with the world I inhabit.

       What the high student -who has not been turned on to reading and great

    literature- does not realize is that ten books a year is a paltry reading

    assignment.For the non-reader every book is an intellectual ordeal and so

    he is more likely to be cranky about what is handed to him.

        As Isaac Asimov pointed out in one of his brilliant essays, READERS

    in general are a minority in this society - 1% of the population is in

    the HABIT of reading. From this perspective,perhaps, it makes sense to

    quibble about what novels should be read in a high school English

    class: those few novels will be the only ones the majority ever reads

    in a whole lifetime. Television will certainly claim their souls !

        Black, White, Yellow - what difference does it make ? the MAJORITY

    of us are us are confirmed non-readers, loyal fans of the BOOB TUBE !

       But there is a price to pay -a nation of impoverished souls.

Personality " improvement " with drugs!

I wonder how many people will see how sinister the " Stuff " news is

    today ( March 19) in your Lifebeat section :

         " Even if you are not depressed, anti-depressants  may be able to

    IMPROVE YOUR PERSONALITY. "

       Does the American Journal of Psychiatry have a not so secret mission: to

    makes us all " more easy going and co-operative " ?

       At the risk of being diagnosed as a  classic case of clinical paranoia,

    may I suggest that the mission of the profession - and Popular Psychology

    in general - has been to suppress and distract the smoldering REBEL in

    all of us ?

        It is nice to encounter cheerful and co-operative everywhere, but

    little things like TRUTH & JUSTICE  might be neglected by hordes of

    cheerful idiots. ( above - co-operative people )

        Sweetness and charm as character traits are more likely to be cultivated

    by deceivers with a self-serving program of their own.

        Honest people cannot help being quite " unpleasant " at times. It is

    simply impossible to tell this society the TRUTH about itself and win

    a popularity contest.

        What would happen if we all took a drug that made us tell the TRUTH

    about everything in our lives ?

        Even Mother Teresa would be scandalized !

     Too many Americans are doped up and stupified with prescribed " controlling "

    drugs. These drugs help them to accept an INSANE life.

      I recommend that we throw all our counter -revolutionary " happy "

    pills down the toilet.

        And let us all shout : " I'm angry as hell and not going to take it

    any more ! "

A nation of drudges

One of our counter culture heroes is a certain Maynard G. Krebbs,

    the beatnik character in a popular TV series,Dobie Gillis. Maynard was

    so allergic to traditional work that he would yelp " work ! " whenever

    the word came up in conversation.

        We can laugh at Maynard and dismiss him as an innocuous bum or

    paragon of the " wasted life ", not committed to the work ethic.

       True enough unproductive idleness can ruin one's character and

    life. But Maynard's truth is that there is such a thing as productive

    idleness - and that everyday drudgery can destroy your soul.

       Old fashioned sweat-shop jobs are disappearing but there are still

    enough of them to go around. I remember being employed briefly in one

    of those God-forsaken , Providence junk jewelry shops when I was 18 . A

    nightmare of a place patterned after those " dark, Satanic mills " of the

    early Industrial Revolution. It was the negation of every human need. A

    sign should have been posted at the factory door : " Abandon all hope ye

    who enter here ! ".

       It was probably well described  somewhere in the pages of Marx's " Das

    Kapital ". Stink and noise and the most demeaning, oppressive, brainless

    "labor " kept in line by the most the crudest, rudest, most ignorant floor

    bosses and foremen. Did you spend more than five minutes in the john ? You

    forfeit one half-hour pay!

        Did this Hell for the worker create Heaven on Earth for the bosses ?

      One day -after about a month of this nightmare of exploitation - I just

    punched out well before noon. Adios slave drivers ! I remember asking the

    wretched " old " man next to me at the bench : How long have you worked

    in this dungeon ?  37 years! he replied, almost proudly.

       " Well I'm not going to wait around for a gold watch my friend ," I

    said ,amazed by what human beings will endure to " earn a living ".

       The job paid health benefits, to be sure . But the irony here is that

    keeping it for any length of time only guaranteed that you would need

    those benefits- it would certainly destroy your physical health and do

    no favors for your mental health.

        I never again took such a horrible job . But I know that they are

    still out there just waiting for some poor soul -from the third world ?-

    desperate enough to accept them, even with gratitude.

        My conclusion about most jobs at mid-life is that they are nightmares

    of drudgery and exploitation. Yet because a job is a necessity, we have

    the unemployed almost shouting : " Thank God for slavery ! "

         Long ago I concluded that the 40 hour work week has become incompatible

    with a civilized life and the worker's participation in so called " democracy ".

       It may sound Utopian now but sooner or later there will be a demand for a

    30 hour work week- with no loss of pay.

        Presently in the United States the average worker considers himself

    lucky if he gets two weeks paid vacation per year, working the 40 hour

    week .

       When does he have the TIME to recover his humanity ?

Vinyl siding- who will know ?

          Reading John Howell's article today, I reflected that I do understand *    

    why the seemingly soporific " issue " of vinyl siding on a 163 year old

    " classic "  Warwick Central Baptist  Church - located in the Apponaug

    Historic District - can indeed  arouse " controversy and hours of heated

    debate ".

         I understand that economic necessity is big factor here but the aesthete

    in me is repelled by vinyl siding on a picture perfect, old fashioned, little

    white church. I would have the same reaction if I read that the green grass

    at Fenway Park would be replaced by that horrid artificial turf . Who will

    know ?

        I suppose I can wear a polyester suit to wedding ( high quality ) and

    actually impress the tasteless ( the majority nowadays ?) .  But a crime

    has been committed against the Artist in us . We long for the inspiration

    of the  DEAD PAST .

        In a memorable scene in the movie " The Graduate ", Dustin Hoffman is

    told in one word where to find the promising future : " PLASTICS ".

        It is, of course, advisable for young people on the fast track to

    possess completely " plastic " personalities. A  strong character of

    their own may prove a hindrance to the blessed state of SUCCESS.

        Who will  know ? Who will know how empty and phony our lives

    have become - in so many ways ?

       About 10 years ago I made a nostalgia driven visit to my old

    neighborhood in Washington Park , Providence. Here now we have BLIGHT

    with a vengeance! But the saddest sight for me was the old house where I

    lived for 17 years - 315 California Avenue. I remember the wooden clapboards

    painted a respectable gray, then an attractive aqua blue, then bright

    white color. My nostalgia trip was totally ruined by the dull yellow

    vinyl siding . It depresses me to think that it is there to stay - year

    after year. The same cheap and drab sight will greet me when I am a very

    old man - if I get there, of course.

         I cannot condemn the present residents who had this done. But I

    feel a loss. as the Scot Fitzgerald character in " Winter Dreams ".

         There was something beautiful in the PAST and now it is gone

    FOREVER !

" The Fever " - state lotteries

My socio-political philosophy has been more influenced by Rod

    Serling of " Twilight Zone " fame than the ponderings of the venerable

    sage, Karl Marx. For example, the episode " The Fever " taught me a lot

    at an early age about the compulsive nature of gambling. At the end of

    this weird story the uptight character Franklin has been driven crazy

    by a diabolical " one arm bandit " machine in a Las Vegas casino. In

    a delirium the mechanical monster  taunting him ..." Franklin , Franklin,

    Franklin .." pushes him back to a window high above the street below . He

    crashes through the window and falls to a horrible death in the gutter.

        We do not even feel very sorry for him in the end. " The Fever " was

    lurking in his stingy, greedy ,warped soul all along.

       I read in this morning's  Providence Journal ( page A4 ,March 16 ) :

       " State lottery ads often stress hype over honesty "

      The same hypocritical state governments that stress " work-fare , not

    welfare ", pay $378 million a year " trying to convince people a lifetime

    of riches might be only as far away as a dollar and a splash of luck ."

         For little Rhode Island we have this alarming statistic : $549 million

    in lottery ticket sales; $549 per capita.

        Americans in general spend $158 a person a year on lottery tickets.

     I recall reading some time ago that our state  is right at top or number

    2  in the " problem drinker " category. Clearly alcoholism and gambling

    reinforce one another. If you win , you can celebrate with a drink; if

    you lose you can deaden the pain with a drink. But the House always wins.

         How many Franklins are there in Rhode Island ? The House takes their

    money and their liver. Sooner or later it takes their brain  and their

    soul.

        ...." Franklin, Franklin, ... Franklin !  "

      And into the gutter below !

Today's  " news " in the continuing White House " sex scandal "

    will not convince me that Bill Clinton is a dangerous and devious

    sex maniac. For an attractive and powerful man - was it Kissinger who

    said that great power was the ultimate aphrodisiac?- his behavior around

    attractive women is predictable and hardly abnormal.

       The latest " revelation " if even half true - suggests that a man

    like him might be " aroused" by a female in need of " rescue ".

       Not a hint of anything approaching RAPE or sexual assault. I refuse

    to have ethical convulsions over the traditional male " pass ".

        Horrified , outraged females - if they are honest about their life-

    will -before condemning the President- get in touch with their INNER

    PROSTITUTE !

        Ambitious women are invariably turned off by meek, passive, NICE males.

    What gets their tender hearts throbbing is the male who has unleashed

    his inner BRUTE but is still in control.

        My brother in law and I joke about " feminist " types who are really

    turned on by  rough, macho man truck drivers - who will slap them around

    when they " need it " . And are turned off by " wimpy, pro-feminist, Ivy

    League Sissies ".

       With really CLASSY women, NICE GUYS finish last.

      Take feminists seriously and they will never sleep with you!  Ask

    Bill Clinton!

Support for unionized health care workers

It is about time that UNIONS in the U.S.A come back with a roar!

    The health care workers ,especially in ethically depraved " for PROFIT "

    nursing homes, are absolutely in need of union protection. It is a

    disgrace that certified nursing assistants are paid less than $10.00

    per hour anywhere in Rhode Island.

         The work performed by most nursing assistants would try the patience

    of a saint. Yet society thinks it is proper for them - because they are

    mostly " third world " nowadays ?-  to earn a buck or two above the

    minimum wage. What does this say about our respect for the elderly ?

        The callous nursing home BUSINESS wants cheap help - ironically

    at any cost! It is expert at exploiting the conscience of these oppressed

    but usually quite decent workers. It is commonplace to read about

    understaffed nursing homes. To complain about poor conditions, to demand

    a militant union- is this a character defect?

       On page C6 of the  March 15 Sunday Journal I read : " Workers picket

    nursing home in move to settle first contract ".

         Working Class Rhode Island should completely support the 1199 union

    at the United Methodist Health Care Center in East Providence .

       Stan Israel , the union vice -president, says they are hoping to

    settle the contract fight without a strike.

        Public support is always a big factor in union battles.

Once again on "abomination "

I support the Ajello bill to repeal that ridiculous law making a nearly

    universal practice -oral genital sex - a crime -even against NATURE !

        Joanne McOsker and Father Richard Donnelly - speaking for Catholics for

    Life - say the repeal will tell our youth that " bestial behavior is OK ".

       In general human sexual behavior is BESTIAL . Who can deny it ? What the

    Church - which is infested with pedophiles and includes many practicing as

    well as celibate homosexuals- finds so offensive about this sexual act is

    that it is non-procreative, a remarkably effective form of birth control.

        God - you might say - gave us the brains to have fun without suffering

    the consequences- the misery of Marriage & Family !

         Forgive me for relating this bawdy but relevant personal experience :

      In a more hot blooded time of my life I was asked buy an attractive ,middle

    aged lady driving a car the where abouts of the Hot Weinie Place. She was

    hungry and had nothing to eat all day.

        I guessed her real " problem" . I escorted her to the Hot Weinie Place-

    my bachelor apartment. She wasted no time getting down to business. Her

    husband , she said, was a prominent business man who " did not understand ".

       " I understand ", I said .

Thank you for parking column!

 Bob, I did not know about the parking ticket business being privatized

    in downtown Providence until I read your column this morning. How

    infuriating! They want to attract people back to the city and show it

    by Gestapo style harassment of people desperate for parking space.

       What type of CLOWNS wish to earn their living in such a degrading way?

    Parking hassles are just ONE reason I choose not to own a car.

       Again your column is the VOICE of the OPPRESSED ! Thank You !

    ( have a nice day -ron )


-----
From: bob_kerr@ProJo.COM ("BKERR.PJB.PROJO.COM")
    To: ar803@osfn.rhilinet.gov
    Subject: Re: Thank you for parking column!
    Date: Wed, 11 Mar



    --Boundary-1077771-0-0

    ron:  it's a strange thing they're doing, almost certain to alienate people
    and convince them not to come back.  thanks, as always, for the comments
    bob

Reducing S-T-R-E-S-S in the Work place

 A number of tragic stories in the news lately focus public attention

    on stress in the work place. I read a ludicrous news item on some

    group's effort to introduce " spirituality " there.

       I do not wish to mock genuine spirituality here,but how do we

    reconcile it with the " bottom line " and obtuse management who-everywhere

    -are selected on the basis of brutal market place skills?

      As one Rhode Island Hospital nurse put it in a recent letter to the

    editor: the situation is " hopeless " with blind administration.

       There is too much job worship in this society. Full employment can

    indeed produce as much mass misery as deep recessions.

       Too many people are being overworked, even when they are well paid by

    our society's standards. There nervous system is so adjusted to adrenaline

    pumping situations that they do not know how to relax. They are even more

    miserable on their vacations than they are on the damned job!

       The individual can only do a few things to counter work place lunacy.

    We call our society democratic but there is hardly any democracy in the

    work place. The bullies are in complete charge everywhere. Thank the gods

    for whatever UNIONS we have left!  ( be careful with the bullies there too)

       One way to take the terror out of the work place is to make many so

    called " benefits " just human rights, We still need a national health

    care plan. And a good education is also a human right. The poor has as

    much right to a " Harvard Education " as the rich. ( have )

        Higher Education should be completely FREE! Middle class parents should

    not have to sell themselves down the river so that their children can " get

    ahead " in life.

        If these ideas sound to strange to so called LIBERAL DEMOCRATS, then

    it is about time a LABOR PARTY be organized in the United States.

       Nothing less than your SANITY is at stake!

On talking to a horse's ass

        Last summer I sent out E-mail to about a half a dozen local

    newspapers alerting them to the out and out CORRUPTION at the Rhode

    Island Registry of Motor Vehicles. In letters titled  Part 1, Part 2,

    and Part 3 - " Nightmare at the Registry "- I documented my own and

    my father's outrageous experience with those THUGS. They treat respectable

    citizens with as much contempt - if they suspect you are not " connected "

    to their vile political machine- with as much contempt as SS treated the

    average Jew in a Nazi concentration camp!

       Those E- mail evidence against the R.I. Registry should still be in

    your computers. I sent them out - not because I expected them all to be

    printed- but in hope of alerting  various newspaper editors ( " They can't

    all be dimwits", I thought ) to the CANCER in our midst.

       The editor of the Newport News was simply annoyed and complained that

    I was sending him " too many messages " . " Please Stop " ( which I did )

    Anyway was I from the Newport area ? As if Rhode Island was not provincial

    enough!

         Imagine publishing your internet E-mail address and then finding it

    annoying that somebody - some peon  outside your Newport circle- wishes to

    communicate with you.

         I concluded : " An issue has to crash down on the heads of these

    jackass editors before they see its significance.! "

        I reflected: If they had any talent or brains, they would be doing

    more writing and less " editing ".

        In brief I was involved in a car accident -which was not my fault as

    decided by the police at the scene. The family car I was driving was insured.

    I have a valid driving license , and no record of traffic violations -and

    no criminal record.

       Because of certain bureaucratic vagaries involving an accident report-

    the police had the complete report anyway - my father and I end up -

    without our even knowing it- with suspended drivers' licenses.

       We had to pay the rotten, corrupt Rhode Island Registry of Motor

    Vehicles $ 500.00 to restore our driving privilege. My father is

    dying of leukemia! He could have used that money for expensive medications.

        Yes indeed Franz Kafka would understand the Registry. Leaving that

    evil place, I identified with Joseph K of " The Trial ".

Mo and the Alphabet

A long time ago one Rudolph Flesch wrote a now famous book

    titled: " Why Johnny Can't Read " . Unbelievably he discovered that in

    our public schools - entrusted with the sacred mission of educating the

    youth-everywhere English was being taught as if it were similar to

    Chinese picture language.

        Despite discouraging irregularities, Flesch insisted that our

    alphabet was nothing less than the sound-symbol system- the creation

    of genius given to Civilization by the ancient Phoenicians -who were

    really, unlike the Greeks, just hard headed businessmen.

       If illiteracy were in fact a near epidemic, Dr. Flesch recommended

    a return to old fashioned PHONICS . However- if I am up to date- the

    absurd LOOK & SAY method still prevails in the elementary classroom.

        If Mo Vaughn could only recite the alphabet half way- getting quickly

    lost and confused - there is an alternative explanation besides intoxication:

        For decades now in our schools the Alphabet has been getting no

    respect.

       Should we be surprised that a respectable nursing home is being sued

    because a responsible nurse cannot distinguish one medical term from

    another?

The FUTURE of suicide

Last week I read with sadness but understanding about the suicide of

    a very young college student. He perceived himself as a " hopeless "

    paraplegic and, of course, Dr. Jack was there to assist his delivery to

    the next world.

        I thought of Brian Dickinson of the Providence Journal- but he was

    similarly stricken well into middle age. And had he not experienced

    at the time many fulfillments of family and career ?

       To be stricken so young - to see yourself as painfully conscious BLOB-

    at what could be and should be the most beautiful and happy time of life-

    let dried up moralists pass judgment on you! Most of humanity will

    understand.

       Perhaps he could have HOPED for a medical breakthrough. What few people

    know is that there has been a breakthrough in suicide. I have read Dr. Frank

    Stein of Cal Tech and HE is the FUTURE of suicide!

       More and more people understand how even the most mysterious CONSCIOUS

    BRAIN functions a lot like an electronic computer. We all know how the

    president of the United States carries a sinister black box in his travels.

    A code entered into it could trigger global suicide.

       Dr. Stein has invented a " black box " for individual " suicide ". An

    electrode -with a deadly mini-capacitor- is strategically implanted in

    just the right area of the  afflicted person's brain. A complex code-

    know only to that person and Dr. Frank - will discharge the capacitor in

    area of the brain that miraculously makes us conscious beings - the " soul "

    of the brain, of the person you might say.

        It does not necessarily kill the person. Dr. Stein is working on this.

    But the MISERY is over. The family is spared shame because it looks like

    a stroke. Even an autopsy will reveal nothing - only a VERY CAREFUL one-

    the capacitor self-destructs.

        " Suicide  Caps " will be ready for mass production by the year 2000.

        Dr. Stein is forming a corporation.

Howard Gardner - Mind Extraordinary !

Harvard professor, Howard Gardner, wants to devise a new test to measure

    a student's ability to think in a scientific  manner. A insipid " inspiration"

    from a garden variety Ivy League brain. Why not just ask them their SIGN

    my dear pedant?

        Among other things  the student will need to know " how to decide which

    life insurance to buy ".  They will clearly be lost here without a strong

    grounding in the SCIENTIFIC METHOD   as measured by dessicated pedants like

    Dr. Gardner.

       They will also need to know how to decide which cigarettes to smoke and

    where to invest their hard earned money.

        Does the good professor encourage his pupils to think " scientifically "

    about the economic system of capitalism ?

         Another little headline in your paper today : " Tobacco executive says

    profits, health are equal ".

       Perhaps Dr. Gardner should present himself to the man- Geoffrey Bible-

    as a private tutor of " scientific thinking  " ? No endowments jeopardized ?

New York Times - Library Suit

       Being involved in an E -Mail " controversy " at the Warwick Public

    Library, I wish to direct the editor's attention to a relevant article

    in THE NEW YORK TIMES ( Monday, March 2, page D 1) - by Amy Harmon :

       " Library Suit Becomes Key Test of Freedom to Use the Internet "

      Writes Harmon, ..." many Americans now count libraries as their sole

    source of Internet access... the case reflects  the Internet's remarkable

    capacity to animate ordinary Americans around a discussion of fundamental

    values."

         In fairness to " conservatives " in the the Loudon County, Virginia

    dispute: Does any half-decent want to see blatant pornography on

    a public library computer screen?

       The problem is soft-ware " filters " that do a cloddish job of

    keeping out that X-rated stuff.

        There is no " problem " with your own computer in the privacy of

    your own residence . The " filters " impose community standards of " decency "

    on the have nots in the public library.

        It is worth mentioning that our Constitution was temporarily housed in

    Loudon County during the War of 1812.

        Of course A.C.L.U lawyers are involved in the law suit. The American

    Library Association condemns the use of filter programs to " block

    constitutionally protected speech ".

       Question: does a California soft-ware corporation ( Log-On- Data )

    have a right to censor the Internet ?

        An adult determined to view pornography at a public library should

    have a private viewing room available . A little room with a green door ?

         Perhaps Common Sense -and democratic principles - together can

    solve these refreshingly new " constitutional " problems.

         Incidentally I have always considered the public library as one

    form of " socialism " that will persist in a relatively democratic, capitalist

    society.

A radical perspective on " political correctness"

Yesterday I once again read in the newspaper the tired drivel : to be

    WHITE in this society is to be RACIST - even if you do not know it or do

    not practice racism. To be a young or middle aged white in general is to be

    an oppressor of racial minorities, the whole third world, an economic

    exploiter of the rest of the world. If you are white, American male your

    in the world is particularly odious: you are also a sexist exploiter of

    the opposite sex everywhere- and most likely a violent homophobe!

      ( " your ROLE in the world " )

       This TIRED drivel has its roots in the pseudo-liberal academic elite.

    For some time " political correctness " has been a cunning cover up for

    their rather astonishing political retreat from the deeper and more

    courageous radicalism of their 60s era youth.

        Would their young radical conscience ever have had sympathy for mere

    BOURGEOIS ambition ? For phony black leaders who have made a career out of

    unmasking white racism where it is not a determining factor? For phony

    labor leaders who want MORE at the expense of the poorer workers? For

    phony ,scheming females who publicly sob over " glass ceilings" in the

    corporation ( ceilings ) ? The corporate female is no less ruthless in

    dealing with corporate " inferiors " than her male counterparts.

        Would the radical of the Sixties sympathize with the " ambitious fag "

    who like the ambitious female is burning for BOURGEOIS social status ?

       The radical CLASS PERSPECTIVE was very sensitive to the particular forms

    of oppression that people can suffer in a capitalist society. But it would

    have laughed at the " political correctness " phenomenon of past two

    decades.

         Everywhere today the so called intellectual class is in retreat. But

    the IDEA of SOCIALISM will survive these  cowardly souls. Let them organize

    a " politically correct " social revolution !

       Fidel Castro- whom I can STILL admire - says: " Socialism or Death ! "

     It MAY come to that some day. But for the present I say : " Socialism AND

    Life! ".

A whole page of letters!

 I was glad to see a whole page of letters in today's Providence Journal.

    Is this a progressive trend or  just the fickle mood of your editors ? They

    seem to come and go like everybody else in the cut-throat capitalist world.

       Whether they are liberal or conservative or closet radicals- who delights

    in seeing talent and integrity bought and sold just as ruthlessly as stocks

    and bonds. Today your paychecks are signed " Bello " . Tomorrow they may be

    signed  " Murdock ".

        Is this the world you want your children and grandchildren to inherit ?

       Most notable among today's letters is the one written by the furious

    Rhode Island Hospital nurse, Maureen Renaud.

        People are terrified about their medical coverage. And when they have it,

    they may still not get a minimum of " professional " care ! What a hell her

    hospital has become : " Our administrators are so far removed from reality and

    the insanity that prevails, how can we ever hope for better ?" she writes.

        It is the same everywhere - careless, callous , oblivious , and greedy

    administrators being rewarded for betraying whatever iota of humanity they

    had. The RULING CLASS  regally lays down the bottom line - no matter how

    murderous everywhere - and the " successful " administrator just goes along

    with the profit delirious program .

        Being " promoted " in corporate America today - in too many cases - is

    a sure sign of a hard heart and an unbalanced mind !

     Is this the world you want to give your children ?

Kudos to Jude Plante of Warwick !

       There is plenty wrong with taking perks Mr. Pisaturo, thinks Jude

    Plante of Warwick . ( " Your Turn ", Providence Journal- March 2 )

        Carlo, the city council president, has to be told this by the irate

    voter. No, he should NOT get his business parking lot paved gratis by the

    D'Ambra Construction Co. No he -and his " guests "- should  NOT be admitted

    to the Showcase Cinemas for a token $ 1.00 !

         The average working stiff in Warwick has to work at least an hour at

    a decidedly non-perky job just to get ONE  family member a movie ticket.

        Incidentally the most popular movie now, The Titanic, is a perfect

    metaphor for our capitalist system. Perhaps Mr. Pisaturo prefers to drown

    first class ? The CRASH is coming !

        How can the perky Pisaturo keep an eye out on the questionable decisions

    of one Warwick Public Library director , Doug Pearce ? Or is corruption a

    a merry family affair in Warwick ?