" Show more empathy for victims of bias " - Peter Denison 's

    letter in the Providence Journal, Jan. 18 - was friendly toward real

    victims of racism and , I suppose, appropriate for Martin Luther King

    Day. But it was still muddled. Wrote Dennison : " It is impossible for

    white people to really understand how they ( minority groups ) feel. "

           If understanding is IMPOSSIBLE, then how do we arrive at Martin

    Luther King day ?

          To say that understanding of ANYBODY is impossible is to forget

    that the very essence of HUMANITY  everywhere is LANGUAGE - the ability

    to communicate not only our crude, animal needs but our very souls, our

    hearts and minds.

          If Black authors really thought that it was IMPOSSIBLE for white

    people to understand them, they would just give up writing.

          All the complaints of racism -real or bogus - are based on the

    assumption of empathy in the vast majority of whites.

            The notion of a permanent state of misunderstanding between the

    races is the ideological excuse for a permanent Civil Rights bureaucracy,

    consisting of permanent CRANKS - who have no vested interest in racial

    harmony .

            None of the letters Denison cites on The Good 5 cent Cigar

    controversy struck me as racist or malicious , or even as offensive,

         But then I am WHITE and it is just impossible for me to understand.

         And in response to his question, I DO support the rights of

    flag burners and gays, and I even support the vile anti -abortion Web

    site, " The Nuremberg Files ".

           I support the right of the Providence Journal to publish those

    letters he considers so offensive and " racist ".

           Quickly re-reading his letter, I must ask : Is Peter B. Dennison

    a member of a minority group or just an extraordinary WHITE person- gifted

    with EMPATHY ?