Old wisdom on education

Apart from the usual political mess , newspapers seem to pay

    a great deal of attention to   society's disappointment with

    the public schools . Always the same complaint: The kids can't

    read, can't write, can't think - beside not even knowing right

    from wrong !

          We must accept the reality of the Bell Curve when it comes

    to learning ability.  Only a tiny minority of the population will

    ever be true lovers of learning , lifelong book worms - recognized

    members of an intellectual elite .

             But I suspect that Johnny can't read , can't write,

    can't add , can't think .... because Johnny can't CONCENTRATE.

           How much money does  it cost to teach Johnny THAT ?

      Writes Gilbert Highet in his book " The Art of Teaching " :

       " Concentration must be learnt. It should be learnt in

    school. A good teacher can teach it to his pupils... Concentration

    is also an intellectual process. It is a choice..

         But the young naturally " hate concentration. It is

    an effort, an unfamiliar and painful effort. Watch a boy

    doing his homework when he thinks he is not observed... "

          " If he goes to work on leaving school, life will

    teach him concentration- or else it will make him

    a nonentity, the sort of man who hops from job to job

    and has a constant struggle to keep alive in a world

    where bees outnumber butterflies. " ( pages 68 , 69 )

             And the number one enemy undermining a kid's

    ability to just PAY ATTENTION ?  Why the TV, the boob

    tube - of course !

           I suspect long walks - which nowadays might

    seem eccentric - would improve  any kid's ability

    to concentrate. The rhythm of walking is also the

    natural rhythm of thinking and reading. And it is not

    for nothing that writers report that they can write

    better  after a long walk.

           I have taken the bus out to URI on some mornings

    and observe the " affirmative action " crowd in a

    completely listless state. Nobody even reading a

    newspaper ! Is it RACISM that puts their minds to

    sleep ? Do racists keep them from entering the URI

    library which has engraved on it the words of Malcolm

    X : " I could spend the rest of my life just satisfying

    my curiosity... "

             Malcolm learned to CONCENTRATE in jail -

    with a minimum of public funds.

Texas executions

According to the AP report in the Feb. 25 Providence

    Journal, page A3 : " Bush had received 2,108 phone calls

    and letters opposing Beet's execution by yesterday afternoon,

    and 57 favoring it . "

           But naturally Gov. George W. Bush's compassionate

    conservatism won the day. It might even help win him

    the Republican nomination - " tough on crime ".

           Isn't it remarkable  what having Jesus as your

    personal savior can do for your everyday morals !

          Perhaps Austria should recall its ambassador

    to the United States - which is mostly just Texas .

          Any two bit psychiatrist will tell you that in

    order to have a death penalty you need born

    psychopaths to help  actually carry it out.

            The fact that only 57 people called in their

    support for  62 year old lunatic , Betty Lou Beet's

    execution shows that the death  penalty has only

    passive majority support. After all, most human

    beings aren't psychopaths .

           Prediction : a big loss for the GOP in

    November .

Don't ignore Ralph Nader

It is too early for me to decide  - for myself at least -

    who should be president. The dull reality of YEAR 2000 should cure

    us all of Apocalypse fever. Whoever wins the American presidential

    election will NOT be the Anti-Christ. A democracy must live with

    election results.

            Even after the Michigan fiasco, Texas governor Bush smugly

    asserts that Hurricane McCain can't win the REPUBLICAN heart. But

    can George W win the heart of the nation - which is what counts in

    November ?

            Gore  is definitely inspiration challenged - burned out

    by 8 troubled years  as Clinton's vice president ?

          The media should not ignore the noble Ralph Nader who

    is again seeking the Green Party nomination. His potent

    message : " It is necessary to launch a sustained effort to

    wrest control of our democracy from the corporate government

    and restore it to the political government under the control

    of citizens " .

           Yes, restore control to CITIZENS  ! Enough of this

    absurd pandering to RACE and SEX  or to sexual orientation.

    If ordinary citizens lack power , the appeal to various

    irrelevances is just  the sham politics of distraction -

    when it is not pure poison.

           Give THEM hell, Ralph !

Tipper Hillary

          Hillary Clinton recently embarrassed herself by failing to

    leave a tip for a humble - and spiteful ? - restaurant employee.

         A major character flaw here, disqualifying her to represent

    New York in the United States Senate ?

          Imagine such trivial stuff deciding elections ! Way

    back in 1938 there was an article in " The Reader's Digest:

    "Shall we abolish tipping ? "

         "  Americans would never stand for tipping and its servile

    implications if the system had not been sneaked over on them ", the

    article concluded.

        Tipping is always a condescending favor - never seen as

    a just compensation for services rendered.

         The  reported origin of " tip " is telling. Slotted boxes

    in  English inns were marked T.I.P - " to insure promptness ".

        Should not courteous service simply be ANY customer's

    right ?

          Let respectable restaurants pay a respectable wage to

    waiters and waitresses. Just a tip from a local crank.

PC war on words -" retarded "

          Now the name " Department of Mental Retardation " is PC

    controversial - almost as offensive as the Confederate flag.

    Again and again in news ( see Boston Globe, page B2 , Feb.15 -

    " Activists protest agency name " ) we read about well meaning

    muddle heads who think that by changing a word - like " retarded " -

    you can change the unpleasant reality behind it.

          My dictionary defines " retarded " : " slow or backward

    in mental or emotional development ". It is derived from

    the Latin. Clearly it was first used as POLITE alternative to

    stupid, moronic ... imagine a " Department of Idiocy " !

           As the agency spokeswoman pointed out " retardation " is

    just a " clinical definition " . Of course we can always come

    up with a fresh word for an old thing. The Oxford Dictionary

    is hardly niggardly with  synonyms!

         Perhaps a born poet can find many words that just

    sound vulgar and insulting. But many words - unoffensive

    to foreign ears - acquire a negative connotation.

          In due time " a person of color " will sound just

    as contemptuous as the taboo N- word.

Pea-brains fire Peobody teacher

            I am appalled to read in the Boston Globe ( Feb. 8 , page

    B2 ): " Peabody shuns teacher for Hitler remark ". The teacher-

    too shameful to identify ! - lost his job because he might

    have said, " Hitler is cool ".

       The school commends the little brat that ruined him-

    knowingly ?   Yes, all this proves that " we have been

    teaching the right things... "

           Really ?  The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky

    wrote somewhere that there were quite a few freaks in the

    teaching profession. I suspect that a over zealous effort to

    eliminate them will deplete the profession.

            But I am also fed up with politically incorrect

    " thought crime ".  The teacher perhaps deserved a mild

    reprimand for unprofessional silliness. How punitive

    are the teachers of " the right things ".

          Free Thought is not included among them .

" Diktat from Brussels " - sensible oped

I commend your editorial this morning, "Diktat from Brussels "

    The hysteria over Haider is indeed " political correctness " run

    riot. Did not President Reagan get himself in trouble when he

    made plans to visit a German veteran's cemetery ? Was it

    Bitzbergen ?

          Of course Reagan was fascist. Ask Gus Hall-still inspiring

    the CPUSA.

          George Orwell would have had a field  day with the Neo-

    Nazi hysteria. " Remember Austria was the womb of the beast ! "

    Yes, and Austria also gave us such sinister types as the Trapp

    Family singers.

           How many all-American politicians are now going to

    condemn Nazism for some cheap applause ?

           Mickey Mouse conservatives are now in danger of being

    not just ostracized but AUSTRICIZED !

            But likewise will Gore come out for Christ and against

    Satan -without offending the Israeli ambassador ?

         We should appoint Patrick Kennedy the new ambassador to

    Austria. That will show those Nazis just what we think of

    them .

Ruggieri letter on " Neo- Nazi " Haider (USA Today)

Thank you for your interest in my recent letter on the Austrian

    Pat Buchanan. I want to emphasize that  my own political leanings

    could be stigmatized as " far-left " - even though I am just

    a voting Democrat. MOST of my intellectual mentors are Jewish !

           Could not such brainless hysteria be directed against the

    Left (  " Are you soft on Stalinism ? "   ... " a fan of the Gulag? ") ?

         What we see here in the Haider case is sham anti-Nazism. What

    profiles in courage who bash a conservative political party that

    has no blood on its hands, no reported " Mein Kampf ", controls

    no military might and in no way threatens world peace !

          Almost  ANY Republican conservative in the U.S  IS branded

    a fascist by some leftists.

          It seems to me that the whole world is not soft on Nazism -

    just a little soft in the head .

Footnote on Joerg Haider - The Austrian Buchanan

I am glancing at an AP photo of demonstrators in Vienna, Austria:

    " No Coalition with Racism ! "  says a sign. I wonder if it is just

    brainless panic- exploited by the very economic forces that recently

    assembled in Seattle -that makes this crowd see Joerg Haider, the

    Austrian Pat Buchanan, as another Hitler.

         Will  ANY politician ANYWHERE who speaks out against unrestricted,

    promiscuous immigration get the same treatment:condemned by a big

    business establishment that could care less about ordinary working

    people in their own country or any other country ?

          No problem with Communist China  ? If the workers rebel over

    there, they can just shoot them !

            I heard this objection voiced by an opponent of Haider on

    National Public Radio this morning : Who will do our menial work

     if they crack down on immigration ?

          The beauty of an honest comment ! Yes, who will do the

    dirty work for lovers of Democracy and Free Trade ?

Unfairness to " Neo-Nazi " ?

Austria's " far-right "  Freedom Party leader, Joerg Haider, is

    not my cup of tea either, but the European Union is being arrogant

    and undemocratic itself in threatening to sanction Austria if

    his ilk is included in the government. How would Italy have

    reacted in the Cold War era if the U.S. had demanded that no

    communists or far-leftists be included in its government ?

            Based on what I read in the newspapers, Haiden is no

    more nutty than our very own Patrick Buchanan - who is NOT

    a Neo- Nazi - but a quite intelligent conservative.

          He had a good word for the Waffen SS ? Well so does a

    video that can be borrowed at the Cranston Public library:

    " Waffen SS - Hitler's Fighting Force " .

          You can read on the cover : " their courage was unquestioned..,

    despite sustaining horrendous casualties, their discipline remained

    unbroken, their fighting ardor unimpaired ,almost to the very

    end....After the war, the Waffen SS were burdened with the near

    exclusive blame for the most hideous crimes of the Nazi regime ".

            Like our own " gallant "  soldiers of the Confederacy ,

    they had their good points and their own code of honor.

           After reading about conditions of  a Paris prison -reported

    by a French medical doctor last week - I'm am all the more

    disgusted with EU moral smugness.