Library needs video drop off (to Warwick Public Library feedback)

I noticed last night that a video tape I borrowed from the

    Warwick Public Library -  Alfred Hitchcock's " Rebecca " - was due

    back on Nov.29 , Sunday. When I went there to return the tape ( and other

    audio-visualtapes )  - around 10 o'clock in the morning - I found the

    library closed. But there was a book deposit box. At other libraries

    they have a separate area for the audio-visual material. I observed

    no such " convenience " at the multi- million dollar renovated Warwick

    Public library.

           This is rather brainless considering that they charge $2.00 per

    day for each  video tape overdue . Unless it is OK to use the book

    deposit box for tapes, the library is being less than courteous to

    its patrons.

          Not wanting to pay the ridiculous fine , I put " Rebecca " and

    the musical " Oliver " and an audio tape " The Fabulous Forties " into

    the book deposit box.

             P.S.   Also unlike every other major library in the state -even

    South Providence branch libraries - the Warwick Public Library, under

    the astute supervision of Doug Pearce, - still block E- mail service!

What Chutzpah !

On page A2 of the Providence Journal this morning ( Nov.27 )

    is great little CHUTZPAH story out Bangor, Maine. A deaf man, Randall

    Dill, had to serve 30 days in jail for DRUNKEN DRIVING and ASSAULT.

    He is now suing the Penobscot County Sheriff's Department . He had

    been inadequately accommodated in jail . For instance , he had

    planned to to go through the drunk's remorse routine at Alcoholics

    Anonymous  meetings in jail. But there was no interpreter available.

            Perhaps compassionate conservatism can come to his rescue.

    Society certainly has an obligation to help the handicapped. But

    the case of the drunken deaf man, Randall Dill, shows just how

    corrupting the sense of entitlement can be: The VICTIMS think

    society can never do enough for them, while they themselves feel

    free to behave quite recklessly and irresponsibly.

          There is no way the most compassionate society on earth can

    create absolute parity for people with severe handicaps. I was on

    the bus recently going from East Providence to downtown Providence.

    On or near Gano St. the bus was delayed for longer than usual picking

    up a man in the wheel chair; the lift just could not be lowered

    properly at that curb. I myself was in no hurry and not at all vexed

    by the situation. In fact I might have even offered to carry the man

    -who seemed slight - on the bus.

            After pulling the bus over to another street, the driver

    - finally -was able to get the man aboard. But I wondered: " What

    about the people who were in a hurry ?  Was not their right to

    be on time for their daily business sacrificed to the " right "

    of the handicapped man to have public transportation ?

            This is no simple matter, I understand. Perhaps here

    " compassionate conservatism " can offer some wisdom .

Beating on a dead mule

I assume Guy Azza  objects to Al Taylor's letter "Slavery 's

    a long dead horse in America ". Guy thinks that the descendants of

    the slave trade  should be compensated: " ..40 acres and a mule compounded

    annually over 350 years ought to do it " (  letter Nov.26 - " A Mule with

    interest " )  .

          I suppose the descendants of the slaves should share all that

    " compensation " with the hundreds of thousands of descendants of

    Union soldiers who perished in the Civil War . General Grant - the Union's

    greatest general - nearly died bankrupt !

            Should the descendants of the horribly exploited mill workers

    of the Industrial Revolution demand compensation from America's " old

    Yankee families " ?

            I can only feel very sad about any ancestor of mine who was the

    victim of great injustice. But what does that entitle me ? Should I

    be as rich as Mo Vaughn ?  ( I'll settle for half of his $ 87.5 million ! )

Providence Library -a disgrace !

After visiting the new Warwick Public Library -and finding it

    most satisfactory, truly a user friendly library, a comfortable place

    for book lovers to read and browse - I was struck again by the unpleasantness,

    indeed the wretchedness of the Providence Public Library, the main branch

    downtown. On the bus I told a long time employee of the library, Barbara,

    that I preferred the library as it was about 10 years ago when the entrance

    was on Empire St. " The library was redesigned ", I said , " by someone who

    hates libraries ". Barbara agreed !

           There is an appalling lack of space for the reader at the downtown

    library. There is inadequate lighting in the periodical room. The rest rooms

    are a disgrace and stupidly located .

           The new, proud Providence should have a main library that is

    worthy of it !

Not all jokes malicious

Betty Goff-McCaffrey advances a very hard line against gay

    jokes in a letter today ( " Just say no ", Letters , Nov.24 )

         With Matthew Shepard's murder in the background , she suggests:

    " ..stop telling and stop listening to homosexual  and trans-sexual

    jokes. "

            How does one know before the telling that a gay joke will

    be hateful and malicious ? And in fact many GAY people are noted

    for their gay ( the usual sense ) sense of humor . They would

    be the last to suggest that a humorless world would be a safe or

    even a tolerable world for gays .

           In general political correctness has done a number on the

    humor industry. I guess you can still be GROSS !

           Just a few weeks ago Providence Journal columnist had a

    column about a really funny guy who could not perform in a

    restaurant because of complaints that his show was vulgarly

    anti- Catholic.  ( Bob Kerr had a column  ) .

            My life experience convinces me that the joker -even the

    crudest type - is less a threat to any vulnerable group than

    the seething hatred that grows madly in the dark.

             There is no need to repress the irrepressible sense of

    humor. Of sometimes it will hurt. In a democracy people should

    have thick skins, just like the politicians. We are ALWAYS

    joking about THEM . What if they passed a law ?

                ( of course, sometimes it will hurt .. )

White African Queen ?

 I just got off the bus and I am noticing that the freakish

    look is definitely the thing with adolescent white girls.When I

    took that second look at a white " African Queen ", I almost said

    audibly :" How Hideous ! "

            Is there a new cult of UGLINESS subverting the beauty

    standards of Western Civilization ?

           The girl -with a peachy white complexion and fiery red hair -

    had at least 4 rings in her left ear, a ring right through her nose,

    4 rings on her left hand.

           An honest person will call things by their right names : THAT

    is the OUT OF AFRICA look with a vengeance.

          If Afro-American want to take pride in Africa, that is their

    right and their business. But for me - and I am no racist - even

    culturally , the African continent is still the HEART OF DARKNESS !

          One look  at the bust of the ancient Egyptian queen, Nefertiti,

    convinces me that Egyptian culture was not at all identical to African

    culture - which almost nowhere was able to rise above a lethargic,

    savage state.

           Advocates of " black pride " , stop deluding yourselves about

    the African wasteland . It is not YOUR heritage !

" Days of Wine and Roses "

Jack Lemon and beautiful Lee Remick starred together in a

    poignant movie about alcoholism . I am reminded of their " problem "

    every time I hear that sweet theme song on the radio : " Days of Wine

    and Roses ". The music almost seems incongruous with the reality of the

    stinking mess hopeless drunks make out of their lives.

           Yet Lee Remick has a line in that movie  hinting at a " reason "

    for alcoholism that is hardly silly and superficial : She tells her

    " recovering " husband Jack that she simply cannot stop because everything

    would seem too UGLY if she quit drinking.

            Does that explain the affinity of many artists for various intoxicants?

        I smile at the words on a downtown lowlife's T shirt : " You're 

    Looking Better With Every  Beer ! "

          To think that the aesthetic sense may be a factor in the life style

    of a bar fly !

Intellectual Decline of Catholicism

Another tired headline in the paper today : " Bishops to

    intensify fight against abortion ". They want crusading Catholics

    to target Catholic politicians -like the Kennedys who have too

    much political savvy to listen.

          I believe it is indeed unprincipled to identify yourself as

    a Catholic if you simply cannot accept fundamental doctrines of the

    Church. Still I can't help thinking that intellectual " free thinking "

    Catholic politicians -in countries shaped by the traditions of Western

    Civilizations - can SAVE the Church from its own toxic tendencies.

          Any Catholic with half a brain can see that the Church can

    only recruit imbeciles - the type that hang around women's clinics

    all day with their pathetic placards , crucifixes, and mile long

    rosary beads- for its holy crusade against abortion.

         The Catholic Church of the Cold War Era - personified by

    the TV personality, Fulton J. Sheen - was a much more intellectually

    formidable institution . Would Sheen have had a vast TV audience if

    he had obsessed on one evil - abortion ?

            The intellectual life of the Church is being suffocated by

    a spiritually unhealthy monomania.

Iodine 125 or barium acetate? (to Bob Kerr)

Good morning Bob ...I just read your column --which is one

    of those things that good people do. But that gift from China, Cheng

    Gu, ( even his name sounds like a take-out order ! ) reminded me of

    the case of young Marie Robards ,a brilliant student and a brown eyed

    beauty, who stole barium sulfate from her high school chemistry lab 

    one morning .Like Cheng -who stole radioactive iodine with which

    he served his former girl friend and others - Marie spiced her

    dear father's left over beans with the poisonous barium sulfate.

        She loved her dad, you see, but he was just part of the

    problem. She wanted to live with her divorced mother.

           But Marie Robard had a conscience. When a close friend

    quoted lines from " Hamlet " , referring to the torment of

    conscience , she broke down and confessed to the abominable and

    detestable crime against nature - patricide !

         This story was featured in Texas Monthly magazine, July 1996.

     True, as  Brown's Laura Freid said : " Anyone who is a human being

    can decide they are not going to act like a human being .....

          " And there's nothing that anybody can do ".

        But still I hope Patrick Kennedy will introduce legislation

    strengthening security at all school science labs .

            Have a good day  - ron

Unequal justice -bail

In the case of accused child molester, James Alderman,( story,

    page A5 , Nov.14 , Providence Journal ) we read : " bail requirements

    are not lowered to accommodate a client's financial situation "  AND

    " Alderman  should stay locked up until trial ".

            Does one have to be a Solomon to see the injustice here ? Is

    the client also implicitly GUILTY of low economic status - an officially

    unrecognized CRIME ?

          In general why do we not challenge this blatant injustice of fixed

    bail and fixed fines - independent of an individual real means ?

           I read, for example, that a person who gets caught recklessly passing

    a stopped school bus can be fined $300.00 . But what a difference in

    punishment ! A rich lawyer loses his weekend parting money; a poor

    laborer loses nearly a month's rent !

           For months now in this White House sex scandal we have been hearing:

    " Nobody is above the law ! " . But it seems that the less affluent are

    all too often... BENEATH THE LAW ! ( less affluent )

Homelessness in San Francisco

Homelessness is getting intolerable in San Francisco, it seems

    ( New York Times, front page, Nov.13 ) . Intolerable for the comfortable

    and for at least one deranged person who has been killing them, claiming

    to be a blood sucking vampire .

        Perhaps the kind politicians of the city might enact more " hate crime "

    legislation " protecting " them. Let the homeless know that like blacks,

    women, and gays, in general, society will not consign them to second class

    citizenship.

        And it won't cost us a cent !

        It is black comedy when a city like San Francisco threatens to jail the

    homeless - just for making a mess! I am reminded of the O' Henry short story

    " The Cop and the Anthem ". The cold rains of San Francisco can get as un          

    unpleasant as "  Soapy " anticipated  winter would be in New York City ( ? ).

         Yes,  Soapy was indeed sagacious in trying to obtain winter accommodations

    in the Jail House. Like Soapy, many of the homeless must flirt with the idea

    of personal reformation. But timing is everything. Better to put it all off

    until the gentle springtime- when the vital sap stirs in all living things,

    even in the hearts of San Franciscans .

Ancient " modern art "

I  am no art conossieur but I know what I like. About 10

    years ago I accompanied my brother Steve , a professional artist , to

    the EXQUISITE ( no better word ! ) Vatican Museum of Art exhibition

    at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Those Renaissance paintings

    will strike a nerve  of the most torpid sensitivity .No doubt they were

    inspired by passionate religious belief. It thought occurred to me that

    they might simply be IMPOSSIBLE in the modern world -which has only a

    pale pretense of piety. We cannot recover the psychology of the past, but

    we can at least appreciate it and understand it .

           But what I found most touching in the Vatican Exhibition was a

    strikingly " modern " ancient Roman statue of a toddler embracing a

    goose.

          Your editorial today " What makes art 'modern ' ? " made me recall

    that particular " masterpiece " . A work a few hundred years old may seem

    dated but one 2000 years old " modern " !

          I cannot provide even a sophomoric answer to your question. But

    it is an interesting question.

          But... they say we are as young as we FEEL . Perhaps the same truth

    applies to works of art. Will the music of Elvis Presley - " Burning Love "-

    for example - ever sound hopelessly dated ?

           I'll bet that 2000 years from now a visitor to the American Museum

    of Ancient Music, will find Presley's " Burning Love " as   MODERN as I

    found " Boy and a Goose " .

Comment from R Marshall:

Ron--I enjoyed reading your warm & incisive thoughts on Art & certain

    timeless themes found therein--i.e., "Boy With Goose" antient statue.

    I'm often struck by the seeming agelessness of certain artistic works,

    such as Van Gogh's brilliant impressionistic paintings. The theme may

    often seem dated, capturing the agrarian fields of long ago France & the

    simple peasants who laboured in them, but the the vibrant colours &

    texture of his paintings make them seem too full of life to ever be

    dismissed as outmoded  passe. I was thinking just the other day how

    timeless James Dean seems. I've always felt that way about him, of

    course, but what strikes me quite profoundly is how timeless he seems

    the more time passes by! 

    No wonder reactionaries fear & loath the Arts! So "subversive" in its

    affirmation of LIFE & FREEDOM! While Art lifts the spirit the

    reactionary feeds on the destruction of others spirits--the essence of

    evil. That Boy With Goose statue you wrote so warmly about--that touched

    you so deeply & moves you still--will endure long after cranks,

    megalomaniacs & egotistical buffoons have withered away on the vine &

    been long forgotten. I've always seen you as an artist--one who, as JFK

    once spoke of the role of the true artist in society-- "remains true to

    himself & lets the chips fall where they may."

Edith Scrivani - PAY UP !

  After reading about the 77 year old Edith Scrivani's credit card

    debts in the Providence Journal today ( " Woman's Powerball winnings too

    late for some bill collectors " , front page.. Nov.11 )  , I must urge

    this extraordinarily LUCKY woman : PAY UP !

             It is never too late demonstrate personal integrity, no matter

    what the letter of the law.

         All her credit cards - a national madness, I understand - suggest a

    extremely self-indulgent person. Yes, even the Godfather, Don Corleone,

    looked out for friends and relatives. Character is more often seen in the

    way we deal with non-family people.

            Let me say - a little sardonically - that a now famous rabbi should

    begin writing another book : " When Good Things Happen To Bad People ".

            Edith, you are 77 years old . The only thing you can take with

    you is an honorable life - spent, ALL PAID FOR !

URI " Hate Call " - a hoax?

Does every idiotic crank call warrant a headline in the Providence

    Journal ? Is this a sign of born again " sensitivity " or just news media

    sensationalism ? Remember the propensity of school kids for pranks . Just

    a few weeks ago a black student was caught by an alert school teacher

    writing racial slurs on a locker.

          According to URI President Robert L. Carothers a message on the

    voice mail of the affirmative action office was " thick with hate -racist,

    misogynistic and homophobic hatred ".

        The Providence Journal headline on page B1, Nov.11, read : " Hate call

    prompts URI to reaffirm diversity message "

            Perhaps the deep male voice was just thick with booze. And the

    message was typical booze inspired hatefulness, with a hint of fraternity

    boy idiocy ?

           The hate message -in a way - also reaffirmed DIVERSITY . Does

    a genuine, pathological hater let the world know how much he hates blacks,

    women, and homosexuals - all in one breath ?   I guess he forgot the

    jews ! No red blooded HATER would leave THEM out !

           The OBSESSED hater focuses on one hated group at a time . I am

    very suspicious of that " hate call " to URI's affirmative action office.

            But I suggest an appropriate response in case it was the REAL THING :

       Pass out buttons on campus declaring: " WE HATE HATERS ! "

Compulsively stupid Republicans !

A week after a mid-term election - which devastated Republican

    " leadership " pretenses - we hear compulsively stupid Republicans -

    are they enemies of DEMOCRACY ? -STILL talking about impeaching

    President Clinton for " high crimes and misdemeanors ", all connected

    ludicrously to a petty sex scandal .

           They just don't get it, these conservative imbeciles: The same

    obtuse arrogance that cost them a decisive electoral triumph - will

    yet win their maniacal war against the Clinton White House ?

        " We are a government of laws , not men ! "  they repeat

    frantically .  In a living DEMOCRACY - in the final analysis - democracy

    itself - the will of the people - is above the law. Any interpretation

    of our Constitution which disdains  THAT WILL is undemocratic and

    fraudulent.

           If the Republicans continue to sabotage American democracy -

    as it is popularly understood - then there should be organized

    mass demonstrations in the Capital - as impressive as " Solidarity "

    organized in Poland two decades ago.

          Who ever thought that mere electrician , Walesa, and his followers,

    could bring real democracy to communist Poland ?

        Arrogant and stupid Republicans take heed !

Wyatt's trivial pomposity

I'm rather good at guessing a writer's politics from his

    style. I'll bet a six-pack that Brown professor of classics, William F.

    Wyatt, is a conservative snob .( If I'm wrong -no great loss ! )

          " Writing is important ", he tells us , but it is not a " trivial

    pursuit " . His column today " Writing's 'grinding poverty '  "( Nov.6 )

    is a quintessential " trivial pursuit " for the average reader of your

    newspaper. If more of your staff begin to write like HIM, you'll have

    very few people reading your newspaper -even on College Hill.

           Mr. Wyatt -an insufferable pedant - scrutinizes articles on

    subjects of which he knows little, to discover " cliches ". He is, for

    example, certain that the  phrase " enlightened majority " is indeed a

    a cliche in whatever context it appears.

         The ENLIGHTENED MAJORITY was not a cliche in Tuesday's election !

       Mr. Wyatt clearly does not write for the hoi polloi , but then he

    has very little to communicate to that " repressive minority " of Brown

    University scholars . He is a grinding bore !

" Just short of mutiny "

Coming the day after a Clinton affirmative election, your

    editorial today ( Nov.5 ) " Just short of mutiny " was timely

    and sound advice to an alarming number of military personnel who

    show a lack of public respect for the elected president of the United

    States. You cannot " fix " a perceived violator of the Constitution by

    violating the military code ( Article 88 ) . If the military has ANY

    purpose in our society, it is to uphold democratic government here

    and around the world.

            Perhaps it might be permissible for someone in the the military

    to write a contemptuous letter to the editor - attacking the Commander

    in Chief - just as long as he or she does not identify military status.

           The root of military hostility to Clinton is - I suspect- his

    support for bays in the military and his own anti- Vietnam War background.

           It must not be thought that most Clinton supporters are anti-Military.

    It is easier today to see the United States armed forces as a great

    necessity in an increasingly chaotic and barbaric world.

          We might soon be engaged with Iraq . And so be it !

Bill is back!

The voters have spoken ! How wrong were the pundits of the

    press eager to see a ruined and defeated President Clinton.  How

    embarrassing yesterday's election results to House Speaker, Newt Gingrich.

           What happened to the Gingrich revolution? That - and not the

    Clinton presidency is on life-support.

          Had not the polls said all along that the voters APPROVED the

    president's job performance ? Had not it become clear that there was

    no public mood for this impeachment circus ?

             Will that worm John Gibson - and his cackling geese " news "

    commentators at MSNBC - continue to babble on insanely about Bill

    Clinton's private sex life day after day, week after week, month after

    month ?

               Let the lynch Clinton mob understand this : THE SHOW IS OVER !

        The great silent majority - silent until now - have spoken.

Year 2000 computer glitch

So our brilliant computers lack common sense! Would any ordinary

    accountant have a problem adjusting his records to the year 2000 ?

           Would anybody dependent on computer data REALLY have a big problem

    dealing with the year 2000?  Would any client actually have to explain

    -confronted by a confused computer screen - what year it really was ?

          I recall my personal experience with computer idiocy : I explained

    to a librarian over the phone that I had indeed returned the video " Hoffa "

    ( a hero of mine ? ) to the library. " On no , " she said , " THAT INFORMATION

    would be in our computer. ".  Not until I went to visit her in the audio-

    visual dept.- and SHOWED her video right under her nose - did she understand

    that the computer was indeed wrong. I suspect that she has resented me ever

    since.

             This morning I read in the Providence Journal (Nov. 4, A7 ) that

    a computer in Switzerland ordered a 105 year old woman to attend kindergarten!

          The computer could only understand the last two digits of her birthdate.

          I suppose the same computer glitch ( with the year 2000 ) will could

    start sending out social security checks to five year olds . All sorts of

    crazy things might happen. 

             How right was my old Latin teacher who use to mutter : " TIME IS

    OF THE ESSENCE ! "

" Ecoterrorism " letters in Monitor

Janet Levers' letter in The Christian Science Monitor ( Nov.2 )

    reminds me of the despairing mood of many anti-war protestors in the

    late 1960s . Her cause is our precious eco-system , the living environment

    that supports ALL life on earth.

          Levers writes: " There is complete lack of acknowledgment of the

    despair that betrayal of our system brings to those who truly care

    about the environment ."  She was responding to a story headlined :

    " Violence Escalates in the Name of Environmentalism " ( Oct. 26 ) .

             I personally see little cause for despair. Even the callous

    rich want a livable world . But a deeper problem is scientific illiteracy.

          Think of the millions of people who smoke. Don't they want a

    healthy body and a long life, just like the non-smokers ? But they

    lack respect for KNOWLEDGE . Or they are alarmingly ignorant.

           A SANE person will - in the long run - do the right thing .

        Today is election day and I just voted . I would never vote for

    any candidate proven to be insensitive on environmental issues.

       But democracy MEANS accepting the will of the majority. If you

    have no faith in the good sense of the majority, then you are

    right to despair over the future of the environment. You are

    right to conclude that we humans - homo sapiens ? - are just

    one more soon to be extinct species...and that the cockroaches

     -who have THE RIGHT STUFF - will inherit the earth.

             But our capacity to learn IS one of the great truths

    of our 1,000,000 million year history. What we do need is not

    more eco-terrorists but more eco- TEACHERS !

Glenn's apotheosis in space

Legendary astronaut John Glenn is clearly on an emotional

    high way up there in space . His inspired words of religious

    conviction will delight stubborn creationists everywhere. It

    is almost obvious OUT THERE isn't it : a divine view presupposes

    DIVINITY!

        ..." Looking at the earth from this vantage point, looking

    at this kind of creation, and to not believe in God , to me, is

    impossible ", said Glenn.

          I have no doubt that Glenn's experience of the glorious

    BIG PICTURE would be an epiphany for a hardened atheist.

          But the emotional reinforcement of a religious conviction

    does not add any intellectual depth to it .

         What would Charles Darwin or Albert Einstein  think if they

    -by some " creationist " miracle - could accompany John Glenn

    in his space ship.

             No doubt starry eyed Carl Sagan would have been awe-struck

    too by this highly privileged experience. But knowing Carl, we can

    be sure that he would have said something like this : " Oh what

    hydrogen atoms can do after twenty billion years of cosmic

    evolution !  "

            But nevertheless: HALLELUJAH !