" Hello,City Hall.."

Good morning, Mr.Bakst,distinguished columnist of
   distinguished newspaper.I'm glad to see that you
   finally have an e-mail address. I wanted to praise
   a number of your recent columns-which reflected
   a rather bold liberalism here in Rhode Island -
   gay rights, Patrick Kennedy's position on the
   bombing of Yugoslavia ,etc.
        I told a politically savvy friend at a
   bus stop that a  Bakst column on Mrs. DiPrete
   was really quite sympathetic, although on the
   whole the Projo seemed to be hounding her
   family ruthlessly.Lately they seem to be laying
   off them -or perhaps the subject just dried up.
      One comment about the mess at City Hall:
    Can't Mayor Cianci see the literal MESS in front
    of City Hall ? Kennedy Plaza is often a disgrace
    with garbage all over the place.
         That area should be immaculate at all
    times. Visitors to Rhode Island surely take
    notice!
       I've been tempted to take a big green garbage
     bag with me one morning and clean up the place
     myself. But I would certainly be arrested and
     examined for evidence of mental instability.
       And I would immediately be registered as an
     enemy of the venerable labor union in charge
     of cleaning up the place.

           Have a nice day   RR

The deep philosophy of Jay D. Paul

I gather from Jay D. Paul's distinctively reactionary
   letter in today's Projo ( June 26 ) that he is a very
   immature ," intellectual "  RIC grad student infatuated
   with a silly ,obnoxious, undemocratic, and yes, UNAMERICAN
   Social- Darwinist ideology.
      The state must reward the rich and punish the poor.
   The " uncreative masses " should " bear the brunt of
   the costs of capitalist progress.After all that is what
   the masses are for ! "
       Did not communist totalitarians also think that the
   contemptible masses should at least serve Historical
   Progress ?
       I doubt if even Bill Gates has such a grandiose
   and perniciious view of his remarkable success. I'll
   bet in his heart of heart he sees himself as the nerdy
   boy next door who made good.
     A mere master of the world market hardly qualifies
   as supreme being and natural Aristocrat!
      And RIC is last place to indulge aristocratic
   fantasies.

       Our capitalist society has produced remarkably
   generous families -like the Kennedys - who have
   devoted themselves to democratic ideals, and who
   understand the meaning of words like COMPASSION and
   JUSTICE.
        The Social -Darwinist philosophy will get
   nowhere in this country. I doubt if the intellectual
   punk Jay D. Paul will be thinking this way ten years
   from now.
        Life has way of taking the haughtiness out of
   most of us. But there remain the incorrigible cranks.

     A bad toothache will cure the average Social-Darwinist!


-- ------
response from R. Marshall:
Ron--I had to write to tell you how impressed I am by your response to
Jay D. Paul's silly Limbaugh rhetoric which he chose to engage in the
opinion pages of the ProJo. Social Darwinism is a creed which Gingrich
failed miserably to sell to the public. A bad Machiavellian, he proved
to be no Prince!
In any event, the Republican Right will eventually drown in it's own
dogmatic swamps. To put it on a daily human level--nobody likes a
stinker! Gore Vidal long ago summed up the three-fold agenda of the
Right

1) Make more money
2) lower our taxes
3) punish the poor

Somethings never change. Undoubtedly our young
reactionary, Jay D. Paul will grow not wiser, but more crankish with
age!

- - - - - response from D. Brussat:

From: "David Brussat" <dbrussat@projo.com>
To: Ron Ruggieri <ronald.ruggieri@excite.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: The deep philosophy of Jay D. Paul
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 13:41:39 -0400
Message-ID: <3777B3D3.9A78A639@projo.com>

Ron - Don't you think there was a lot of tongue in Mr. Paul's
cheek, not evident until the last graf of his letter when he begins to
speak of cutting off the welfare folk so that the rich producers can be
more fecund? Or something like that. It seemed obvious to me, but maybe
I am wrong and he really is that Spenglerian. Frankly, although I would
not take the policy prescription to such extremes, I think, if indeed he
is serious, he's right. - Dave

Dale Carnegie and Fidelity

             Marc Stuart wrote an interesting letter yesterday -" Fidelity

    needs to hire a new PR man"- in which he referred  ( sneeringly ? )

    to that all time great classic of public relations, Dale Carnegie's " How

    to Win Friends & Influence People ".

            The book has been around for almost 7 decades. Every respectable

    high brow feels compels to dismiss it as contemptible capitalist

    swindling made respectable.

            Just yesterday I came across a condensed version of it in a 1937

    " Reader's Digest " at the URI library.

            I found it still entertaining and still giving even very ordinary

    people sound advice on " getting ahead " not by egoism but by coming

    to terms with natural egoism of human beings.

             Perhaps  Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer could have written it. Did

    not one critic write that Tom - more than Huck -was destined to become

    the town mayor ?

              Readers of "Tom Sawyer " will recall how Tom persuaded his

    friends that there was nothing more exhilarating than white -washing the

    fence - a chore he loathed ?

             Such benign selfishness made this country great - or at least

    made the rich richer.

James Dean would understand her

      I was shocked by this young diarist's entry:A
   13 year old girl with suicidal thoughts!(www.opendiary.com)
   Late winter melancholy in the early springtime of
   life.
        I'll bet that eternal adolescent idol-James Dean-
   would have understood her. A memorable scene in " Rebel
   Without A Cause ": Dean screams to his obtuse,middle class
   parents, " You're tearing me apart! "
      Could parental disharmony have traumatized this
   sensitive young girl-who thought herself neither
   pretty nor popular ?
        In that same film Dean's co-star lovely Natalie
   Wood -hungry for her daddy's attention-is coldly rejected
   by him. As if she were now too old to be hugged and
   kissed by a father.
       We can all be better, more understanding people.
   As Dean said to his dying father ( Raymond Massey )in
   " East of Eden " : " A man has a choice! "

Dallas Projo supports chain gangs

Good afternoon, Bob. Thanks for fighting the good
fight. But the Almighty 4th Floor does not seem to
support that last Bob Kerr column on Fall River
chain gangs. ( see yesterday editorial)
    The Dallas Projo preaches the work ethic to the
proles and the criminal class-and to suckers everywhere.
   Would the former Providence Journal preach this
phony sermon to our native plutocracy ?
   I myself believe in a rational work ethic and
reject the vicious and useless humiliation of helpless
prisoners whatever their misdeeds.
   A rational work ethic would demand that we abolish
all hereditary wealth-even while preserving the best
in greedy capitalism.
   Good thing you guys still have the Newspaper Guild.
THEY would have the best of you in a "newspaper "
chain gang.
   I think Mr. Whitcomb is at his best WRITING
columns. He even remembers the smell of ginger ale
as a 4 year old!
  But those letters he publishes are getting awfully
boring and egocentric lately.
  Mary Ann, the talk show queen , for example. Her
last letter suggests that there is no love lost
between Italians ( who compete for hot air space )
   Anybody for " ethnic cleansing " of Providence
City Hall? We can send the whole FAMILY to a pizza
chain. And they can still be a gang.

" Tonight's Sky " - my favorite

In little Rhode Island you must get away from
  the Greater Providence area, to North Scituate
  or Foster perhaps, to get a Carl Sagan view of
  our galaxy- " billions and billions of stars".
     When the night sky is unusually splendid here,
  I view it as a mesmerized kid, thinking of the
  famous opening words of H.G Well's science fiction
  classic, " The War of the Worlds " :
    " No one would have believed in the last years
     of the nineteenth century that this world was
     being watched keenly and closely by intelligences
     greater than man's.. "

   I have looked for THEM but I've never spotted
  any sinister flying saucers in the night sky over
     Rhode Island.
        But in the daytime -in downtown Providence-
     " The Invasion of the Body Snatchers " scenario
     has some credibility.
        I must mention my favorite web site : " Tonight's
     Sky " ( http://www.earthsky.com ). It tells
     me just what to look for in the heavens on any
     given night. Tonight , June,22 :

         " The planet Mars and the bright star
           Spica can be seen near each other..
           And tonight they are near the moon-
           a very noticeable sight!
            " Mars is reddish in color... Spica
            shines blue-white in color ".
     Then I like to go to those stunning images
     from the Hubble telescope. One of them, I
     am convinced, belongs in the Sistine Chapel.
     " The Finger of God ", I call it. It shows
     new stars being born in a glorious, transcendent
     illumination.
        If you are sick of the happy couch potato
     life style - fat bodies, foolish minds- go
     outside at night and enjoy a slice of heaven.

Aronson's Frankenstein -no soul ?

Despite the opinion of James Howe ( " Aronson is dangerous ")
     I doubt if Dr. Stanley Aronson's erudite columns will bore
   most of your readers to death. The intellectually comatose
   will not even attempt to read him. To be sure his style and
   pedantic tone seem odd in the daily newspaper. Those
   gargantuan paragraphs really belong in a 19th century
   Encyclopedia Britanica.

         Today's column " What hath science wrought "(June 21)
   focuses on Mary Shelly and her gothic classic " Frankenstein ".
       Aronson refers to the monster as "lacking a soul " and
   thinks him fated to do nothing but EVIL, having been brought
   to life " not by love but by electricity ".

       As a matter of fact most human beings are brought into
  being not by love but by lust -frequently drunken lust.
       If you READ the horror classic, you will see Shelly's
  monster has an exquisite soul, sensitive to the beauty of
  nature and to the simple goodness of his first human mentors
  in the cabin in the woods.
      The monster bares his soul in language worthy of Milton.
  He becomes a fiend when he perceives that unlike humans, he
  has been abandoned by his Creator, Viktor Frankenstein.
      The monster -you might say - was an abused and abandoned
  child !
      He haunts his creator : " I will be with you on your
  wedding night " - one of the most frightening utterences
  in all Gothic fiction.

      If the monster did not have a soul then neither did
  his creator.

A pink slip for Bob Kerr ?

  I doubt if your fine columnist Bob Kerr will find a pink slip

    in his next paycheck because Joan Fratterelli loathes him. But does

    she not owe Projo readers a substantial-if brief- denunciation ?

         Be  more specific Joan. Have you unmasked any dishonesty or blatant

    incompetence in his columns. A friend of mine, who teaches math at URI,

    told me just yesterday that Bob Kerr is one of the few columnists he

    reads who seems to live in the same world as he does - a world of the

    struggling non-bigshots.

           Ok so you would prefer that this talented and sensitive man be

    shoveling out monkey cages in a Zoo. But  I hope you would object to

    him on a CHAIN GANG there ? He would do that much for YOU !

A Disgraced LEFT !

 I am ashamed of very many left-wing political organizations blinded

    by an ossified and irrelevant ideology. They showed their true TOTALITARIAN

    colors when they -almost ALL of them ! - denounced the  NATO military actions

    in Yugoslavia. They did not even SPEAK the language of humanity in their

    ludicrous editorials. It was the obtuse and obfuscating language of power

    politics, of would be commisars .  The ethnic Albanians were not even

    mentioned as CLASS brothers. There were tears for " sovereign " Yugoslavia

    and poor misunderstood Milosovic!

             The humanitarian LEFT  must find itself again. It has now gone

    all the way to Hell.

Love that Fall River !

 Good morning Bob . At first glance at your column
     this morning - " Chain gang has nothing going for
     it" - I thought this sheriff  Tom Hodgson was indeed
     a cracker- some deep South backwater red neck, law n'
     order man.( with KKK rallies as a relaxion )
         But alas this was FALL RIVER -nearby . Time does
    seem to have forgotten Fall River. It is the perfect
    sight for a FILM NOIR. My friend Billy and I go there
    now and then to visit the Lizzie Borden place.
       Lizzie Borden would have figured out how to deal
    with Chain Gang Hodgson !

    then to visit the Lizzie Borden place.

- - - - - - -
response from Bob Kerr:

ron:  next time you're in fall river, stop in the abbey grill.  it's a
wonderful restaurant in the former central congregational church on rock
st. - the church lizzie herself attended.  or, for a little more local
flavor, try the chourico and chips at billy's cafe on bedford st.  and
if you can catch a sunset from lower kennedy park you've damn near had a
full fall river.  bob kerr

You are a pleasure to read !

I don't have a conservative slant on most issues but I

 respect thoughtfulness wherever I find it.  Let me make this

 seemingly illiberal suggestion : Build more prisons in Rhode

 Island. Or at least a spacy new jail in downtown Providence.

     Why can't kids realize that they can enjoy life AND be

civilized ?    Have a nice day , Dave







- - - - - -
response from Dave Brussat:

Ron - Enjoy life AND be civilized? What a novel idea! Thanks for
    the note. - Dave

What would Howard have preferred ?

    Good morning. I know and respect Howard Miller.
  With regard to your note, I'll bet he would have
  preferred your publishing a letter of general
  interest - a letter on medical insurance perhaps.

      To be blunt you preferred to humiliate him
  instead - " abrasive " , " have not given a
  thought to him ".

     I might have this all wrong. But that is how

  it seems to  me. The old Providence Journal had

  more CLASS. This is the " Dallas -Projo " now !

                          Sincerely, RR

- - - - - - -
response:
From: "Newsroom Group Mail Account" <letters@projo.com>
To: Ron Ruggieri <ronald.ruggieri@excite.com>
Subject: Re: What would Howard have preferred ?
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 15:23:59 -0400
Message-ID: <3766A84F.89A29596@projo.com>

howard is an obnoxious and arrogant man. but that will not keep me from
running his stuff. and the old line about the old journal having more
class is crap. our letter publishing policies have not changed. best
wishes,

Save capitalism -abolish inherited wealth !

As long as it is checked by Big Brother -the federal government-

    capitalism is a dynamic, creative, marvelously productive economic

    system. But the anachronism of inherited wealth has got to go.

           People resent welfare because it is just a " hand-out " that

    rewards indolence. But how do pitiful welfare hand outs compare with

    billions of dollars of inherited wealth ?

           A rational society will not permit FAMILIES to accumulate wealth,

    only energetic individuals.

           For example, when Bill Gates dies - after all he is mortal - his

    child will not be able to inherit more than $100,000 .

            All fortunes will be turned over to Uncle Sam. Perhaps the Air

    Force can use it . Or the  Environmental Protection Energy .

Howard Miller's question -reasonable ?

   I just read Howard's Miller's letter. And I think
   the question he raised deserved a respectful reply-but
   why publish THIS letter ? Newspaper fairness is the
   public's business, to be sure.  But a writer writing
   about his letters not getting published always seems
   a little silly.

      I have some ideas about how to reduce letter writer
   frustration. I'll pass them on later.

      I do recall Mr. Miller raising the issue of medical
   insurance problems in the U.S. Certainly, an important
   issue.

       I suppose it is good advice not to write letters
  to newspapers in over-emotional state. But anger is a
  driving force - the steam in the engine. Does anybody

  really pay attention to Casper Milktoast ?

" Normal " homosexuality ? ( Morgan letter )

Robert S. Morgan writes that he is sick of reading that

    homosexuality is " normal "( letter - June 12 , Providence Journal )

             I agree with him that FACTS should not be distorted,and I
    d
      do believe that untruth cannot serve any worthy cause. It does seem

    true that monogamy is rare among homosexuals.

            No thinking homosexual will try to convince the " moral " majority

    that his life-style is " normal ". But it is not irrational to assert that

    it is NATURAL . I think Hegel said that in a sense " whatever is, is RIGHT ".

     I would say that whatever is, is NATURAL.

             A fan of the National Geographic TV series, I am amazed at the

    very strange behavior of the higher mammals - like monkeys who cannibalize

    their young . Strange indeed but not unnatural.

            The laws of nature do not permit violation. If you are religious,

    you can think what you please about the laws of God.

            Rational homosexuals should not demand that the majority approve

    their sexual behavior. They should only demand understanding and a non-

    persecuting society. And no job discrimination where sexual orientation is

    simply irrelevant.

             It is ludicrous for them to push gay marriage. Homosexual intellectuals
    like Gore Vidal - have been the most sarcastic critics of " holy matrimony ".

           Homosexual marriage would be nothing more than a farce of a farce.

        And those very exuberant gay parades probably do more harm to their cause

    than good.

              I will not accuse myself of being completely straight. That is

    my business .

Krypton-36 , lead -82 ( protons )

 The editor of the New York Times is ignorant
   of elementary school science. Judging from a
   June 10 article ( Nuclear chemists report surprising
   creation of two new elements ), the editor last
   glanced at the famous Periodic Table in the college
   sophomore year :

      " ... using krypton containing 86 protons to
    bombard lead atoms with 208 protons. "

    Consult the table. Krypton has 36 protons; lead 82.

                               Ron Ruggieri

A surfeit of sleaze ! (to MarkPatinkin@Projo.com)

  My sister in laws -with kids - will love your column
   today.You perceive DECADENCE in the wrong place - the
   supermarket.
      I recall that Helen Gurley Brown -now around 70 ! - is
  the editor of the " feminist " magazine "Cosmopolitan "
      With her face lift she has only taken 3000 years off
  of Time's Ruin . Behold the mummy !
                                   Sincerely, RR

Clarence Thomas is " heroic " himself

Good morning PROJO . As you know most graduations speeches are

worthy of oblivion.Headline : " Clarence Thomas tells grads: Be HEROES ".

Thomas said that his heroes " couldn't read or write " but got up

every day and went to work and " believed in all that was right and just ".

But it defies the definition of the word HERO to proclaim ordinary

decent citizens " heroic ".

For me Clarence Thomas -U.S. Supreme Court Judge - rises to the

level of " hero " not just for his achievement but for his CHARACTER.

It takes courage to be an individual not dominated by the self-limiting

group think of too many Afro -Americans.

I say this even while I disagree with many of his conservative

views.

As for the hero in general it does help to be able to read and

write.In a morally challenged environment reading will give the individual

the opportunity to at least KNOW right from wrong . And skill at writing

the opportunity to influences the benighted masses .

The Force be with you - Clarence Thomas !

Anderson interesting on WRITING

I enjoyed M.J. Anderson's column this morning: " Writing

our way to wellness ". My slant on this subject - I like to write

short letters to EVERYBODY - could be titled : " Writing my way to

WELFARE ! "

Anderson says just about everybody wants to tell their story.

A real writer she points out will use painful experience as raw material

of the art.

It seems to me that the purely PERSONAL is quickly exhausted. Is

it not even more important simply to have something meaningful to

say ?

IDEAS cry out for expression just as much as mere feelings. And

they don't enervate the writer or the reader !

The neurotic writer 's mind will go blank right after catharsis .

Most of the reading I real enjoy centers on objective realities of

life and universal aesthetic experiences. FEELING are interesting when

they reflect universality .


Ego as Orwell said also plays a role in motivating the writer :

I think, therefore I exist !

Press looking stupid again !

The Clinton hating pundits in the press are looking
pretty silly this morning.Headline : " Milosovic
Capitulates ".
Just a few weeks ago you guys had announced to
the world that Butcher Milosovic- now branded a
war criminal by the World Court - was the winner
of the Kosovo conflict.

Do the NATO leaders -especially President Clinton
and Britain's Tony Blair - look like blood lusting
chumps who blundered into a catastrophe on this happy
morning ?

The very same defeatists in this two month war in
Yugoslavia clamored for President Clinton's impeachment
or resignation earlier in the year.
Our president, you see, was guilty of " high crimes
and misdemeanors ".
The same crowd thought it bad judgment and bad
timing for the World Court to brand Slobodan Milosovic
a war criminal guilty of heinous " crimes against
humanity ".

The voting public will take notice. In January
2000 a proud Bill Clinton will be saluting the President
Elect of the United States - Al Gore !

The Horror downtown

A very different column this morning. I became
very familiar with " Downcity decadence " while
working a job on the second shift. I don't want
to be unfair to the guy- but a lot of the wild eyed
barbarism that I beheld at the bus stop -near The
Strand - was a Rich Lupo Production.

Let's face it : UNCIVILIZED entertainment
attracts the UNCIVILIZED crowd.

I did frequent the quieter Old Lupo's Heartbreak
Hotel where my buddies served as bouncers and
bartenders.It was even back then the opposite of
" a clean well lighted place ".

A girl I knew was raped under a table there. And
the two bouncers - both named Ray - shot themselves.

Glad to hear you sold your car to a " very pretty
teenage girl from Seekonk ". I gave away a Buick in
good condition that a widow willed to me a few weeks
ago. I gave it to my brother Michael whose car was
stolen by Rhode Island's finest last year. He has
three little girls to support and a pretty wife who
mainly likes to shop. Very soon " Debbie " will
discover the Providence Mall!

Have a nice day, Dave. I hope people stop picking
on you for your love of classical architecture !



- - - - - - -

response from Dave Brussat:


Ron - Thanks for your kind note. I think Cianci has to realize that
this is a problem if he wants downtown to cater to more than just
itinerent artists (not that there's anything wrong with that kind of
artist, as we all are at the start, at least). And you don't need to
worry that modernists who complain about my classicist opinions will get
me down - they only get me to snarling at them the worse! And I'll bet
that Brown, now that the old Haffenreffer has died, is drooling at the
idea of using his money to hire a glitzy Fifth Avenue architect to build
a monstrosity that College Hillers will hate rather than merely
rehabbing a beautiful old building that already exists. How boring! The
new Brown president increasingly strikes me as a fraud and mountbank.
- Dave

Milosovic " patsies"

   Good morning, Marcus

           I appreciate your observations this morning about
  newspapers acting like Milosovic patsies. You said something
  very similar a few weeks ago. I passed it on in a letter to
  USA Today. They did publish my letter , but that perceptive
  Patinkin quote was edited out along with my more provocative
  sentences.

      I have a theory why professional columnists like yourself
too often settle for bland remarks: They have a wife and kids
to support . You cannot offend too many bigshots -even in our
democracy -without a vacancy on the park bench waiting eagerly
for your ass !
      Perhaps critics of NATO have a cynical attitude toward
the Jewish figures on the Holocaust? Perhaps it was all a
misunderstanding ? And none of our business anyway. Gentlemen's
agreement ?


          Have a nice day  -ron