Sorrentino's " Poster Boy " FDR

        Talk show personality Mary Ann Sorrentino's guest column in the

    Providence Journal today ( " Don't turn FDR into a poster boy "- July 7,

    Commentary page ) reflects her keen mind better than her rather degenerate

    talk show chatter. Her opening sentence referring to the FDR -in- wheelchair

    " storm troopers " reminded me of a passage in the Nathanael West novel of

    Hollywood ," The Day of the Locust ":

       " They are relentless,coming over the Virginia hills...wave after wave of

    people in wheel chairs, platoons of the mentally and emotionally disadvantaged,

    legions of angry Americans ... ".

       They all want the satisfaction of worshiping at the  new shrine of ONE

    very special celebrity - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a crippled but inspired

    and optimistic man in a wheel chair. They want the FDR memorial to display

    him before the country as one of THEM .

       Pointing out that FDR himself and his family would probably be offended

    by this sight, Sorrentino wants the " spineless " politicians - who can

    walk- to JUST SAY NO to this impassioned mob, many of whom can walk no better

    than their idolized president.

        I understand her argument here: Did FDR want to be perceived and remembered

    as a CRIPPLE.( Hitler in his bunker -defeated - referred to him as just that )

        But I must disagree with Mary Ann - if only mildly. Would the FDR -in-wheel

    chair memorial make an utter " poster boy " mockery out of this very remarkable

    president ? Cannot the wretched hordes have him as their symbol of HOPE ? Who

    today does not know that FDR was a polio victim who led a " crippled " country

    from his wheel chair ?

        I fear that the greatest disservice to the memory of FDR is the conservative

    Congress, hostile to everything he believed in . He believed ardently in the

    HELPING HAND of government. For many of the relatively privileged in our co

    country he still THAT MAN- a damned SOCIALIST-even though he actually saved

    capitalism.

       I hope HAPPY DAYS will soon be here again for the platoons of the wretched

    and have nots. Is there a wheel chair in YOUR future ?

                             Ron Ruggieri  699c Church Ave. Warwick, R.I

     401-732-0215

     ( I noticed some glaring typos in the earlier letter. I guessed my

    coffee was not strong enough this morning ! ) I GUESSED ? Oh well!