Dance Macabre in Lahore

        Your front page today, Friday, May 29 : " Pakistan answers India,

    sets off own nuclear tests ". A picture shows Pakistani children -

    who have the most to lose from  this " nuclear power " madness - dancing

    in the street. Truly a dance macabre !

        The  " Islamic bomb "  has arrived as if descended from Heaven. Allah

    is great !

         The news has set off " pandemonium " in the  Indian Parliament.

    Just the right word - all hell is now loose in that  " overpopulated "

    region. Allah in his infinite wisdom will soon solve the population

    problem. A mathematician reminded me that the Indians literally

    contributed ZERO to civilization.

         Dance, dance my little ones. If that's all there is, then let's

    keep dancing ... ( song lyrics )

Sorry Chat Line Mix Up ! (Warwick online)

Sorry about a misfire . You were so close to eavesdropping on

    a my scandalous private life , which would have exposed me as the

    Uriah Heep of Rhode Island.

         I was composing my thoughts on the nature of physical beauty,

    inspired by those lovely  young faces I saw on the front page of

    the Warwick Beacon yesterday.

         This morning  I read : " becoming obese is a normal response to

    the American environment ".

            Must ordinary people be highly motivated to stay attractively

    thin ? Why do most married people rapidly put on the pounds, the men

    with beer bellies by the time they are 30 and the women at about the

    same age with an often irreversible matronly look ?

          I wonder if the real reason besides the "  American environment "

    is that all " romantic " feelings are dead in them, long before middle

    age. I remember  the character " Rabbit " in an John Updike novel thinking

    that his wife  Janet looked old at age 24 .

           Is being fat a way of telling the world : " I don't care anymore ! " ?

        If these  people tending to obesity  would just WALK a half hour a

    day , they would have their 18 year old body back in two years.

        The philosophy of Self -Esteem nowadays encourages us merely

     to accept  or sometimes even to love our imperfections. It does not

    challenge us to be our best physically and intellectually.

         Quite often there is a mental torpor associated with obesity.

       The ancient Greeks wisely preached the ideal of " a sound mind in

    a sound body. "

           At least 99% of the obese people out there can get back into

    fairly good shape if they have the WILL.

        Even if BEAUTY is just VANITY, then so is every other pleasant

    thing in the world. Indifference to beauty is a sin against life !

Health Care Issue Comes Back

I read on the front page  of The Christian Science Monitor ( May 18 ) :

    " Growing frustration with health care puts it back in center of political

    arena ." A newspaper publisher here in Rhode Island - a mentally depressed

    man - said recently in a suicide note that our mental health system had

    let him down. Assuming he was at least fairly well off, what chance do

    the do the poor and the working class have of getting adequate care for

    mental depression ?

         Living with my mentally ill brother, who is lithium dependent, I

    can better understand the now dead and buried , young newspaper publisher's

    long suffering grief.

          I can say a lot more but time and space are limited. Is our

    humanity also limited ?

Applause for today's " Americanize immigrants "

John J. Miller's column today ( May 27 ) " We must rediscover


    how to Americanize immigrants " was  more rational and benign in

    tone than most Left or Right perspectives on this sensitive issue.

        At its worst the Right offers the vision of the Nazi gas chamber

    as a " final solution " to  assimilation problem. Even the more

    reasonable " liberal ' left is downright embarrassed by displays of

    patriotic sentiment. They seem to think that American History is

    - when honestly told - a shocking tale of WASP depravity .


          Is it " politically correct " to admire every culture and

    civilization but one's own - which has a claim to being the best

    in the world, even with its many problems ?

          The new immigrants will not be imposed upon by asking them to

    be " patriotic Americans " . In its best sense that is not just a

    pop phrase suggesting " Joe " types - pot bellied, red necked, gun

    swinging idiots.

           I feel a little like Rhett in "  Gone with the Wind ". He had

    an impulse to defend a  lost cause ( not a moral one in my opinion )

    when it was clearly lost, when Atlanta was burning and the Old South

    was gone forever.

" Boomers cracking up "

         The  Lifebeat headline under " Stuff "  this morning reads :

    " Boomers cracking up " . At first glance I thought it was good

    news for the  " grief industry ". I always suspected that my generation

    was just not made of the "right stuff "- like the early astronauts and

    formidable WW II combat veterans , and Richard Nixon. Seriously I'm

    not impressed with the bunch. But I'm terrified by the new generation,

    which a talented surreal artist could symbolize and represent with

    a   haunting blank stare.

          But " cracking up " in the Stuff section refers to our teeth." All

    those fillings boomers got as children are aging"   and painful dental

    catastrophes are lurking behind the brightest smiles  in the country.

        We benefited from that once controversial flourinated water. So

    much so that I suspect that most of our so called " cavities " were

    actually made by those terrifying dentist drills.

         Greedy dentists did not want to go completely out of business.

    If they were not obvious to you, they were obvious in the dangerously

    overused dental X-ray . " look

    Ma more cavities ! "

           I say: Never underestimate the greed of the small time entrepreneur!

    For months I went to coin laundry where the hot water plumbing always

    seemed to be malfunctioning. Most of the customers were oblivious of

    this. But impish I would cynically test the water with my hand. " Not

    even lukewarm ! " I protested. After a while I caught on to the owner's

    racket. How profitable to have cold water only !

          Perhaps he was related to my dentist. This type invariably votes

    Republican and complains about Big Government depriving them of their

    first million dollar year.

       A word of warning : when you are downtown at lunchtime, watch those

    $20 bills. I have been cheated twice in one week out of the right

    change. " Oh there was something in the machine !  But there was nothing

    in your head or you were trying to pull a fast one !

        Perhaps the editor will think that I am " cracking up " .

Fishy News for the Ocean State

The author of "Eat  Right, Live Longer " has very bad news for

    the Ocean State: Even unpolluted fish is bad for us !

         Neal D. Barnard writes in a column today ( May 23 ) : " Women who

    often eat fish are more likely to give birth to sluggish infants with

    small head circumferences and learning disabilities than women who rarely

    or never eat fish ".

        When I was a kid , influenced by fish as brain food  misinformation,

    I  took bigger servings of that delicious fish. I have never measured

    the circumference of my head but I am a little sluggish . I once scored

    significantly over 130 on an IQ test.

       It seemed to me in those days of youth - looking at library picture

    books - that the Polynesian people , living mostly off the sea, were

    most healthy and beautiful people in the world.

        Did the Burger King finance Mr. Bernard 's research ? To counter

    hysteria over mad cow disease ?

         Here is a statistical insight : If I buy a lottery ticket I am more

    likely to win the lottery than somebody who rarely or never buys lottery

    ticket.

        If this letter is printed, I can expect to sleep with the fishes.

Codoms in schools

I recall a deceased friend , a high school chemistry teacher,appalled

    by the very idea of making condoms available in schools. He was convinced

    that they would stimulate the very sexual activity  requiring condom

    protection. And he was no religious zealot but a free thinking Jew.

        Rep. Michael Pisaturo 's perspective is that we must face reality:


    the kids will have sex " no matter how much we preach abstinence and we

    need to protect them ".

        Still I'm inclined to my  departed friend's opinion. The schools

    have an obligation to enlighten and educate .  Schools can't compete

    with TV in sending wise or foolish sex education messages to youth.

    Too many teachers naively believe they can tell the kids something new.

        In reality the kids cannot be protected from their own stupidity. In

    the winter time I see a number of not too bright kids skating on very

    thin ice - with DANGER signs  clearly in view.

         If some of them drown , we should not blame reading teachers.

       But a suggestion : it may be wiser to dispense cheap but high

    quality condoms in a discreet corner of drug stores. Even adults might

    hesitate to buy them with teen age girls at the cash register. The

    condoms could be sold in non-judgmental vending machines.

Joe Paolino is not an " ignorant racist "

John St. Lawrence's letter today ( May 20 )
excoriating ex- Providence mayor, Joseph Paolino, is
a masterpiece of rabid political correctness.
   Mr. Paolino was a perfect gentleman in trying to
recover his reputation with the politically important
Hispanic community. It had been nearly ruined during
a campaign by a fiasco of misunderstanding and ill
will.
  I remember voting for him in the primary precisely
because I agreed with his view that -after all-
English - is for all practical purposes, the national
language of the United States . And that we should
be proud of it, the language of Shakespeare!
   A check of newspapers, television, radio programs,
and bulletin boards in welfare offices should
convince the ardent Mr. St. Lawrence that there is
no suppression of the Spanish language in the United
States. On the contrary !

    He would make it mandatory for us to learn
Spanish " at the earliest possible age ".
   I myself am a great believer in studying foreign
languages FREELY .

   Spanish is no more " inferior " in the United
States than English is in France .

   But don't listen to the likes of me. Like Joe

Paolino I am just a blatant white supremist .

Anthony Lewis on affirmative action

I can understand why columnist  Anthony Lewis is relieved by

        a recent House vote on affirmative action . ( May !8 )

             He sees no wisdom in the federal government penalizing colleges

        and universities with active affirmative action programs. Canceling

        these well intentioned programs , he thinks, will quickly result in

        a situation profoundly embarrassing to the very idea of " democratic

        legitimacy ".

              400 black students with 4.0 grade averages are rejected by the

        University of California , I read . But isn't it rather ironic that

        being  rejected by an " elitist " college ruins your opportunities

        for leadership roles in a " democratic " society.

               Perhaps " elitist " schools should be abolished ?  Why

        should  " elitists " professors  make " elite " students their

        exclusive concern ?   Most of their  brilliant lectures, for example,

        can be easily and cheaply marketed for the peasant masses .

            With computers omnipresent in our society , any information or

        wisdom available to an elite can be  made quickly available to

        some poor but intelligent black kid in a South Providence, Rhode

        Island  public library.

             I am convinced that an " elite " education in the United States

        is nothing more than a very undemocratic exploitation of the upper

        middle classes and an affront to the lower classes.

              The Ivy League is just full of baloney !

Rename Conimicut Point after Hayes

Conimicut Point sounds like an old Indian name of no great

    significance today. But one young man, Stephen Hayes, drowned there

    recently while  going to the rescue of two children. They were saved

    and he is dead at age 31.

        Fishermen familiar with that sandbar extending a few hundred yards

    into Narragansett Bay know what a  treacherous nightmare it is when

    the tide rushes in. Anyone on it will feel his feet sinking deep

    into the sand and could soon be sucked under water.

        Living nearby on Church Ave, I take frequent walks to Conimicut

    beach. It has its charms but on the whole strikes me a melancholy

    place, at times even desolate. Certainly not a friendly place to

    swim with the " polluted " sign  never removed. From the shore it

    seems that any swimmer will  quickly find himself in deep water .

        It amazes me that people pay for admission to this pathetic

    "recreation area " in the summer time. Of course there should be

    a lifeguard or two there. But nearby Oakland Beach is much nicer

    with its grander view - and bars.

        I think Conimicut Point might well be renamed after the heroic

    young man who gave his life to rescue an 11 year old boy  and a

    nine year old girl.

        I recall a novel by Albert Camus, " The Fall ".The hero, a Parisian

    lawyer fancied himself a very high minded type until one night : he

    was walking along the wharf when he hears the desperate screams of

    a woman drowning. But the water was cold and dangerous. He refused

    to even attempt a rescue. In a few minutes he learned that he was

    a miserable coward despite his very successful life.

       Whenever I take my pensive walks to Conimicut Point I will think

    about Stephen A. Hayes and the qualities that can make human beings

    rise above the level of rodents .

Sportcaster might be fired !

 I cannot describe myself as any kind of sports fan.  But I'll

    pick baseball - the  " all American game " - as my favorite game to

    watch. " But it's so BORING ! " a friend complained. " That's why I

    like it ", I said. " It gives me time to think and solve my problems

    while savoring that classic ball park atmosphere - the sights ,sounds,

    noise and smells of Fenway Park in  Boston. Watching the game on TV, I

    still could get my life together.

          Half listening to Yankee ball game on the radio last night, I

    could not believe my ears when one of the sportscasters ( he said he

    was 37 years old ) protested not just how BORING this particular game

    was but how BORING baseball in general is for the younger fans!

         I'm a great believer in FREE SPEECH  but this man was clearly

    undermining his JOB ! He may get a rude awakening from his " field

    of dreams " !

          You can't ALWAYS say exactly what is on your mind, Ask me !

Idiotic religious persecution bill

I hope Bill Clinton wisely vetoes it -if it ever gets to his desk :

    the asinine religious persecution bill. It demands that the impossible:

    that our government can make a fair judgment in the matter of the

    persecution of religious minorities in foreign countries. What if the

    " persecuted " minority  are Moslems in Israel ? What if they are a

    just a fanatical  and violent cult ?

         Is every form of religious lunacy sacrosanct ?  How about a bill

    protecting teachers of Darwinian evolution from religious cranks ?

    A bill protecting rational non-believers everywhere ? Heretics and

    infidels everywhere ?

        Just plain EGGHEADS ?  .... Eggheads of the world unite . You have

    nothing to lose but your yolks !

Prisoner of war story ( May 14 )

 If I had been among the audience at the Naval War College when

    he spoke there, I too would have listened with rapt attention to

    Porter Halyburton . He  " suffered unspeakable dignities at the

    hands of his North Vietnamese captors ... tortured, placed in

    solitary confinement and fed food unfit for farm animals ."

      ( Providence Journal , May 14 , " From Suffering , Life Emerged " )

       Years after his ordeal as a prisoner of war, he seemed to experience

    a sort of epiphany reading existentialist psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's

    book " Man's Search for Meaning ". Frankl learned in Nazi concentration

    camps how to find meaning in the most extreme situations. More than

    anything that would help you to survive.

         His book -which I myself read while Halyburton was in North

    Vietnam - is deeper than the rather shallow " When bad things happen

    to good people ".

           But just a foot note to balance the enemy atrocity story :

     Last night I came across  another prisoner of war story in " The

    Wartime Journals of Charles Lindberg ".

           On Wednesday , June 21, 1944 he writes about the sad fate of

    a helpless Japanese prisoner of war.  A sergeant complained that he

    had  no real experience fighting and " would like the chance to kill

    at least one Jap before he went home ".

         So the Jap prisoner was brought to him . " Here was his

    opportunity".  But he was too decent a fellow to kill the

    man, a helpless prisoner.

      But another soldier was made of " the right stuff ". He

    offered the Jap a cigarette and a light. He had a puff or

    two, the prisoner and then quickly and treacherously  his throat

    was " slit from ear to ear ".

       Writes Lindberg : " The entire procedure was thoroughly approved

    by the general giving the account."

        In general WAR IS HELL !

Israel at 50

         I agree with your editorial " Israel at 50 " that this Jewish

    state is an inspiration for any people or individuals fighting to

    to survive. It literally has arisen from the ashes of the Holocaust-

    which was no myth. It is also -despite its Jewish identity - a bastion

    of  Western Civilization in a  region dominated by the dark influence

    of the fanatical Islamic faith:

                  Hey, hey is that the Moslem Way ?

                     How many heads will you cut off

                         Today ?

          But how can this nation finally find peace ?  As your editorial

    points out  a permanent state of war is " a condition that no nation

    can sustain indefinitely . "

              I dare suggest that the Jewish state must gradually dissolve

    its strictly Jewish identity. It should evolve into nation very much

    like the United States. Most of us know how influential Christianity

    is here . Many of us -wrongly - think we are a Christian nation.

         Separation of Church and State makes genuine DEMOCRACY possible.

       In romance novels we find that opposites often attract. There may

    be many so called Jews in Israel today who are really half Arab .

         If a Jewish man can fall in love with an Arab woman and live

    happily ever after, what does that tell the state of Israel ?

         May I recommend that the future prime minister of Israel be

    one of those " bastard " Jews, with a nice Arab mother . There

    are a lot of NICE ARABS you know ?

         Like the legendary Solomon , a bastard prime minister- half

    Arab, half Jew - will know instinctively how to DO THE RIGHT THING !

        Shalom !

The " victim " collects

Accuse three men of raping of you - wrongly according - to

    a jury , continue to remain anonymous after the damage to the

    " innocent " males is done ,and  collect $20,000 in  victim award

    money from the state of Rhode Island.

            This woman really is a bit of a hustler !

        She is entitled to help from the state- if she needs it - for

    legal bills and medical expenses. Maybe even $20,000, maybe more.

       But not as " victim " of a non-crime whom the state failed to

    protect. This woman , it seems now. was victim of her own bad

    judgment . She was clearly an " accomplice " in the rape case.

        The morning after she saw herself as a " victim " .

        The state has ,in effect, paid her $20,000 for services

    rendered .

Hearing Truths about Society

Good morning Froma - I have a theory that the reason even deeply

    honest people cannot talk TOO honestly about  Marriage & Family

    issues is that  most of them are married or divorced - and blunt

    talk about the INSTITUTION may be mistaken tragically for an unloving

    and uncaring attitude. It is the common experience of the race that

    only a few people care about the individual -mostly just friends

    and family. From strangers we expect just a measure of kindness ( " A

    Street Car Named Desire " )

         The more militant feminists diagnosed the FAMILY in general as

    an oppressive institution. I am not a dogmatic Marxist - quite

    frankly I don't know what can replace it, that is not an abomination

    of human nature.

        The family oppresses the male just as much as the female. A

    child can be crushed by ignorant and stupid parents - yet must endure

    their authority  for nearly two decades.

       The other day I observed a very young woman talking ignorantly and

    viciously to her 4 year old kid. " The kid is doomed to a wretched

    life ", I reflected.

          Have a nice day anyway Froma !

           Ron

The Human Genome Research - awesome potential

        The federal government  simply MUST have the upper hand in its

    vastly important project  to " find and decode all 60,000 or more

    genes in the human body . The  $3-billion project is the moral

    equivalent of the famous Manhattan Project that developed the first

    atomic bomb : " The Italian navigator has entered the New World ! "

    That was a cryptic message to announce physicist Enrico Fermi 's

    successful - and perhaps highly dangerous nuclear fission experiment.

        When the  Human Genome project is completed  we all will enter an

    exciting and highly dangerous New World.

        I remember in junior high school first learning about this mysterious

    DNA -the raw material of genes. Its elegant structure quite simply

    explained its reproductive function . I recall pictures of ecstatic

    scientist gazing reverently at models of the " double helix " The

    names Watson and Crick were etched in my memory .  It was as if these

    two young men had finally discovered the Holy Grail of bio-chemistry .

          The fact that some 60,000 genes define a HUMAN BEING tells us

    a great deal about old disputes. Racist ideas are immediately reduced

    to the intellectual rubbish   which sane people always rejected.

         But what about  class differences ? What about the difference

    between the smart and the dumb, brave and the cowardly, the beautiful

    and the ugly ? More significantly what about the  genetic difference

    between the good and the evil ?

          What will we DO with the new knowledge ?  Only a democratic

    society - a VERY democratic society - can make  wise decisions.

         That is why I prefer the relatively democratic and idealistic

    federal government to have the advantage in Human Genome research.

         A private corporation  like Perkin-Elmer can be trusted -in

    the long run- only to do the PROFITABLE thing .

India goes nuclear -on Gandhi's 50th !

I never for a moment thought that the end of the Cold War

    was the end of the Nuclear Age. Never in the long history of

    " civilized " warfare has the latest technology been simply put

    aside as a matter of " good sport ".

          This morning's ominous headline : " India explodes H -bombs "

    should awake us from our peaceful slumbers. It was of immediate

    political consequence : headline USA TODAY - " India -Pakistan

    tensions now have a hair trigger ".

         The patron saint of modern pacifism, the great Indian Mohandas

    Gandhi -still the most revered name in India -was assassinated

    fifty years ago in 1948 . When disorder broke out in the volatile

    Punjab region  Gandhi " underwent a 72 hour fast to atone for

    some Indians' loss of self control " (Encyclopedia Americana )

         What would he do today ? Talk about a " loss of self-control " !

        The Pakistan foreign minister, Gohar Ayub Khan , says India

    has now " sucked Pakistan into an arms race ". He talks nonsense !

         The  United Nations can and should guarantee that no nuclear

    war will be  " won " on the Indian continent . It can treat India

    at least as harshly as it treats Iraq .

Two 1968 Memories

 In a column today ( May 10 )  , Jonah Raskin, the author of

    the " Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman " ( RIP Abbie! ) flashes back

    to the most outstanding year in my  personal memory - 1968, the Apocalypse

    Now year . His column is poignantly titled : " If you were there, 1968

    is you ". Being in my core mostly just an " observer of life "- even way

    back then - I managed to stay out of all kinds of potential trouble. The

    anti-war demonstrations I attended were big hearted and peaceful. But I

    felt in the depths of my soul the " violence " of the year  -a most

    powerful " energy field of HISTORY ". Yes indeed " something is happening

    here ". We were all going to heaven; we were all going to hell.

         I remember while stretched out on a lawn cot the day after the

    horrifying Democratic National Convention , deciding that I would not

    vote for anybody  on election day running for President of the United

    States " Nixon, Humphrey, Wallace - don't make me puke ! "

        I have changed a little. I now always vote in elections - even if

    just for the lesser evil. There is too much " devil " in me not to

    compromise with the DEVIL.

         A very personal memory is being evicted from my college English

    composition class. I had written an essay titled : " The Meaning of

    the Hippies " . The professor waved in the air. Not even knowing me

    he declared that I had plagiarized it. " We don't want people like

    YOU in our class ! "

         He was really a decent man and an excellent teacher. " You could

    not SPELL half the words you used in this paper ! " he challenged me.

       I went to the blackboard an spelled correctly all ten words he yelled

    at me. Then I left the classroom, not humiliated but defiant.

         Exiting I heard him say : " He was clever enough to to memorize

    the words before he came to class this morning."

        The matter was straightened out .  I proved from my notes that

    every sentence in the " radical " essay was my own. It is to write

    half well when you FEEL DEEPLY about an issue. ( easy to write well )

          That essay is still ME but it has disappeared . But somehow I

    still feel that THEY do not want people LIKE ME in THEIR class !

Medical care as needed as car care !

The subject of medical care in labyrinthine in its confusion and

    complexities. I have always believed that -in general - medical care,

    a reasonable amount of it that is - is quite simply a fundamental

    human right. If you are a HUMAN BEING you qualify for it!

          But in this brief letter I must indulge in victim bashing, even

    with a heavy heart.

        I know quite a few people myself who have no medical insurance. It

    magnifies their paranoia about any health problem. The wise insurance

    companies -and ruthless - know that most of the time, most of our

    medical problems are minor. It is just like cars -always some little

    thing!

         People with no health insurance often don't hesitate to come up

    with hundreds of dollars every few months for car repairs. After all

    a car is necessity of life!  But life itself is also -excuse the wisecrack-

    a necessity of life.

         Take a man with no health insurance who seems to have a minor eye

    infection. He avoids seeking any treatment at all because he is embarassed

    about his lack of coverage. Also, what if it is more serious ?

         An honest doctor would probably treat  and cure the problem for

    $50.00 . But no, they dare not approach a high priest of medicine

    unless fully prepared for catastrophic diagnosis.

         Does this behavior make any sense ?  Are our cars more important

    than our bodies ?

A spaghetti " special "

Several days a week I usually have the " breakfast special " at

    a New York System restaurant in downtown Providence, right near the

    public library . Ted, the manager, quickly serves me two eggs over -

    medium with home fries, rye toast and coffee - always just two dollars.

       But yesterday I arrived a little to late for my usual breakfast. A

    young waitress quickly suggested to me the lunch special- "spaghetti

    and meatball with power ball ( a lottery ) . I was thinking of American

    chop suey -usually about $4.00. But I quickly decided for the " power

    ball special ", though I never -on principle - gamble.

        For a modest restaurant  Ted's  meat sauce was quite good -" better

    than the Mayor 's Own ", I complimented him . ( Mayor Cianci has a little

    business on the side ) . I paid no attention to the price until I was

    at the cash register. I expected the " special " would cost about as

    much as American chop suey. Surprise !  "  Six dollars ", Ted tells

    me. Just a moment of " shock " as  I considered the power ball ticket.

        I only had about $7.00 in my bill fold ! I did not study the numbers

    on the power ball ticket.

        This morning I ripped it up, again without looking at it . It was

    the principle of the thing. But I am not mad at Ted .

Honk for Jesus !

         Perhaps I'll drive by city hall around noontime  to see the

    circus. God bless H.L Mencken ! He had the drooling religious fanatics

    figured out decades ago. They have organized yet another National Day

    of Prayer. I guess that is why bad things happen to good people- even

    their God gets sick of them !

        I read in the Warwick Beacon this morning ( May 7 ) this fatuous

    headline : " Prayer Day aims to cleanse society ". The story is by

    Patrick Luce. I can't blame the reporter for being assigned to interview

    religious crackpots and fanatics - like  Kathy Davenport and  Armand

    Boucher. ( the latter lead an Elmer Gantry type crusade to  rid West

    Warwick of those filthy strip clubs - which I confess I miss )

        Perhaps Mayor Lincoln Chafee will show up to honor this " work

    of the Lord ". There may be a critical vote or two in the pious

    crowd.

           I'll admit our society  is morally confused and I've been doing

    my damned best to straighten it out . But it is not easy, with the

    " brain drain " and all.

         In the Beacon we read the usual drivel from the Jesus Junkies :

    " If people pray together it will make the prayers stronger ". For

    what purpose - to bend the will of the Almighty? It is as if they

    imagine a completely capricious God - in the image of an oriental

    despot. Tyrant that He is, he may give in to the vociferous mob

    or at least His Mother will put pressure on him to DO THE RIGHT

    THING .

           Cynics have been way too polite in their public discussions

    of the " opium of the people " .  Our contempt for them  deserves

    the literary equivalent of the King James Version .

        The latest astronomical news about a vast cosmic event suggest

    that our world could perish in an huge explosion of LAUGHING GAS !

       Perhaps the Creator will have the last laugh, after all .

Swiss Guard murder & Shakespeare

The recent story of the murder - inside the Vatican - of the Swiss

    Guard commander, Alois Estermann and his wife - this " moment of madness "

    and then equally mad self-destruction by the 23 year old Cedrich Tornay -

    apart from shocking us also helps explain why we still read William

    Shakespeare 's plays.  The oldest human emotions endure through the

    centuries - despite all the technical " progress ".

        Tornay had received an insufferable blow to his ego from the

    commander - a reprimand for a commonplace folly of youth - being

    out all night with responsibilities to face the next day.

        Tornay  notes that  his name is omitted from the " honorable

    service " list - no ego-boasting medal for him, a young man protecting

    Christ's vicar on earth. But Estermann himself the  good Pope appoints

    commander, a position his humble social status by tradition should

    make unattainable. To be humiliated and reprimanded by a low -life,

    who just happened to be at the Pope's  side on a very evil day when

    he was shot by Communist conspirators.

          The medieval aspects of the story are also worthy of Shakespeare.

    Why must the commander of the Swiss Guard be of noble birth ? What

    anachronistic snobbery  so near the year 2000 !

         And why must the Swiss Guard be all Swiss. Remember that it

    was no longer thought terribly important for the Pope himself to

    be Italian . Logically -tradition is seldom logical - it is no more

    necessary for the  pope's Guard to be all Swiss then it is for our

    cheese .

       Then if LIFE itself were logical there would be no emotional need

    for Shakespeare . It would not be " a tale told by an idiot ... "

The Merriam Webster " nigger "

Activists are complaining about the Merriam Webster definition

    of the " most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English " -

    the word " nigger ". They say the dictionary fails the political

    correctness test  because  the word is " a racial  slur ,not a noun ".

        I learned in elementary school how the science of grammar classifies

    words - nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs.. . Do the political correct

    wish to re-write the rules of grammar ?

         I suggest that the over-sensitive black scholars campaign first

    of all to get black people themselves from calling one another " nigger ".

    Nowadays I hear the word most frequently on black lips. I just read in

    the Providence Journal the other day how strange  we " crackers " find

    this self-derision.

         Also it is a simple fact that people in the habit of consulting

    dictionaries for the precise definition of words appreciate the

    English language, and avoid vulgarities in their everyday conversation.

       The Merriam Webster Dictionary is INNOCENT of promoting racism ,

    even unintentionally .

S-T-R-E-S-S in kindergarten !

Odd little stories like this tend to make me less sympathetic

    to teacher unions .I recall Leon Trotsky in his auto-biography " My

    Life "observing that the teaching profession attracts an inordinate

    number of " freaks ". For too many pupils they are still the soul

    destroying oppressors of youth. Unions protect these " freaks " !

        The odd little story: My six year old niece Kate came home crying

    from the Budlong  Elementary School in Cranston. The area is fairly

    affluent, so one would expect that finding half decent teachers is no

    big problem.

       Why was Kate crying ?  Apparently she failed to grasp some fundamental

    principle of ECOLOGY ! Political Correctness ,it seems, demands that

    kindergarten pupils  grasp abstruse " environmental " relationships

    even if- like my very normal and lovable Kate - they would rather be

    " studying " the wonderful land of Oz with its wizard and munchkins

    and poor Dorothy and the tin man, and the cowardly lion and the wicked

    witch .

        Kate was retarded and IMAGINATIVE enough to draw a tree coming out

    of the sea. The teacher, I hear, marked it with an X !  I guess some

    kids just don't get it, the teacher must of told herself.

        You would think that kindergarten teacher - even if unfit for the

    job -would at least be KIND !

        My nephew might call her ( I do not approve ) a " tree hugging  hippie "

       Has  this old maid of fifty ever hugged a child ?

R. Healey and R.I brain drain

 I share R.Healey's concern about the Rhode Island " brain drain ",

    expressed this morning ( May 5 ) in the Warwick Beacon. Is the problem

    more acute  perhaps in Warwick ?

      " We must not let these educated individuals leave the state ", he

    warns . And how does " brainy " Rhode Island try to deal with this

    rather embarrassing problem ?

         How do we keep the intelligent in the state ?  I read on the front

    page of the Providence Journal today that  a national study shows we

    have absolutely the  WORST ROADS in the USA - and also we pay more

    than any other state to keep them that way .

        Apart from roads , though, there is the airport and the railways .

    I recently told a friend that the best thing about Rhode Island nowadays

    is how fast you can get out of it !

        So the Road Block idea won't work ! The intelligent will escape

    anyway !

Bill Gates can't buy culture !

Just the other day I read about a " class " offered exclusively

    to the super-rich - naturally - on intelligent philanthropy: how to

    rid themselves of their burdensome wealth wisely if not profitably.

        Today I read that Microsoft chairman has just paid more than

     $30 million for Winslow Homer's American painting masterpiece " Lost

    on the Grand Banks ", a major seascape still left in private hands.

       Bill Gates can buy " priceless " paintings but he can't buy real

    culture. Any two bit psychologist can see through such mega-purchases

    of fine art. A narrowly focused " genius " like gates -or maybe just an

    " idiot savant "  Gates - probably sensed that he had failed to become

    truly " cultured " during his dizzying climb to the economic heights.

         The $30 million purchase only advertises his " poor soul ". He

    knows better than anybody else when contemplating himself honestly :

    " There is not much here ! " Even in his special field of computer

    technology, I'll bet that there are at least 100 undergraduates right

    now at MIT more gifted than he ever was. He was in truth one of the

    lucky pioneers . His likes were around in the early days of radio and

    TV.

        If Gates had a little more heart , he would realize that $30 million

    could help support hundreds of LIVING artists in the United States.

       He would not recognize a contemporary Winslow Homer !

       What can be more ridiculous than " possessing " a great work of

    art anyway ? Do you acquire the right to prevent the public from

    enjoying it ?  Do you ultimately make more money on it, money the

    artist himself never even imagined having ?

        How profoundly ironic : the world's most insensitive souls

    hoarding great works of exquisitely sensitive artists !

        Perhaps there is a portrait  of Bill Gates  hidden in some

    talented artist's attic, done in shades of Dorian Gray !

What would Mr.Metcalf think ?

I just read Rena Pederson ( Dallas Morning News editor ) in

    Providence Journal this morning. The topic: God's own program for

    reforming " robbers, murderers, and drug dealers " and slightly

    reducing the recidivism ." Prison Fellowship ", the enthusiastic

    sponsors of " InnerChange " reports marvelous results in Sao Paulo, Brazil

    -of all places ! ( I would love to read the Amnesty International report

    on these very same " salvation " prisons.

        Since the " InnerChange " program takes at least 18 months to work

    its wonders, the self-respecting prisoners would not want to be in jail

    for any less time.

       Hallelujah! The Providence Journal once staid editorial page now

    has the effervescence of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader squad !

       What would the sober and wise, Mr. Michael Metcalf, think about

    the New Regime at 75 Fountain Street ?

New Reagan building - a cathedral of Big Government

        Believing in Big Government myself, I have no quarrel with the

    $818 million dollar Reagan building - housing those loathed federal

    bureaucracy workers and soon to be dedicated by President Clinton.

       How beautifully ironic ! My newspaper shows me a view of its

    enormous atrium, 10 stories and covered by a barrel vaulted ceiling

    with an acre of glass. " A watershed of tax payer waste ", complains

     Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union.

        These horrified tax payers should learn from the ancient world-

    Egypt, Greece, Rome - the significance of grandeur in architecture.

    All those monumental buildings that are still standing -like the

    great Colosseum in Rome or the Egyptian pyramids , the Parthenon in

    Athens- bind us psychologically to these once magnificent civilizations.

       One reason we don't care much anymore about ancient Carthage - a

    city of craven merchants - is that the Roman military utterly

    destroyed it. Probably most of the edifices were strictly utilitarian

    anyway -worthy of narrow minded bean counters.

        Ordinary people think differently in different dwellings. If

    you want a peasant to think like a feudal lord, house him in

    a castle. If you want an atheist to think like a priest employ him

    in a cathedral. If you want a pacifist to think like a general let

    him study the art of " peace keeping " in the Pentagon.

        Likewise the near illiterate might develop a fondness for books

    while killing time in the more elegant libraries.

        Time spent in those dreadful old prison buildings might inspire

    the young punk to be a real Wise Guy !

Patinkin on Having Gray Hair

I was in truth rather painfully amused by  Mark Patinkin's

    observations today ( May 3 ) on how people respond to rapidly

    graying hair- a " problem " for most men beginning in their late

    thirties. Forget " distinguished " to describe your modified

    appearance. Most of the time it is just a fading rat look. If

    it is accompanied by the "look of success "-it may arouse the

    the "interest " of the more available members of the opposite sex.

       Before long he will be receiving tenacious reminders from insurance

    companies not to neglect the inevitable bill for his own funeral.Even

    before you have made your " mark " in the world!

       Those teenage girls who call you " sir " would scandalize their

    peers by getting too friendly with an older " creep " of 25 .

      The world regretfully is indeed very age conscious.Every story in

    a newspaper tells us - often irrelevantly - how old somebody is.

        " Miss Prudy , age 39, is an expert on  flowers. But some flowers

    never blossom ! "


        Console yourself Mark- aging is still harder on women .I suspect

    that many quite charming women actually go into hiding : " I just

    want to be alone ! " - the Greta Garbo line- expresses their melancholy

    outlook on the inevitable.

Professorial rubbish from Ken Starr!

 On Law Day a professorial Kenneth Starr ominously -and fatuously -

    reminds us that nobody is above the law. Remember Nixon ?

        I wonder what side of the fence Starr was on when " Watergate " was

    a burning issue. The comparison between Clinton and Nixon can only be

    taken seriously by very professorial cretins, operating with barren

    legal abstractions. In any democracy in the final analysis- democracy

    itself must be ABOVE THE LAW !

       Nixon seemed more odious to the  American public because his illegal

    acts undermined our " democracy ". All legal gibberish we read involving

    Clinton's conduct fail to strike a cord with most of us. Why ? Because

    quite simply we ask : " Where's the beef ? "

        " Whitewater " in contrast to Watergate is an utterly soporific

    " scandal ". Where are the aggrieved VICTIMS ? And what is the significance

    of a 20 year old  petty " crime " for the nation, a " crime " that would

    bore the most assiduous Certified Public Accountant ?

       Behind Mr. Starr's professorial drivel is  political animosity. He too

    is not above the law. But he is,it seems,above COMMON SENSE !