So the world needs a MOM ?

 A maudlin way to make the point : " Carefully fingering a

    string of rosary beads ... "  Professor Mark Miravalle whispered,

    " The world today is in desperate need of a mother . "

        He  and 6 million other Catholics  want to promote the Virgin

    Mary to  FIRST MOTHER of the whole world. ( see PROJO , Dec. 26,

    page A6 ) .

             In the interim  may I recommend Barbara Bush as a worthy

    candidate  of the FIRST MOTHER role ?  She might secretly believe

    that HER son , W , is indeed  DIVINE , but my heart went out to

    her when she insisted in public that HE was not stupid . Motherly

    pride is powerful stuff !

            A biography says of Barbara : "  She started volunteering

    in hospitals long before she became famous. She did the kind of

    work - even emptying bed pans - that gave her up-close experience

    with many patients .

            Barbara Bush is well known for her long campaign for

    literacy. She learned that a prisoner " got caught because he

    couldn't read the exit sign on the door of the supermarket

    he was robbing. "

           " She urged him to develop his reading skills - "

           Yes, indeed nothing  like a good mother !

        By the way, there is a correlation between sightings of

    the Virgin Mary and  a high level of illiteracy in the

    witnesses and the spectators:  " It's a Miravalle ! "

               But I have great respect for the real Madonna !

Crank atheist on " spirit of Constitution "

The town atheist in  Somerset, Gil Amancio , prates about

    public creches as a  violation of the " spirit of the Constitution ".

    All it takes , of course, is one cranky complaint and the babe is

    evicted from the manager - not in the spirit of the Constitution,

    which even an honest agnostic must admit is permeated with a RELIGIOUS

    spirit - no in the spirit of Scrooge before his encounter with even

    the first SPIRIT . ( see story in PROJO  , Dec. 22 , page B 2 )

               Atheists have their rights, to be sure. Let the LAW decide

    this matter of religious displays one way or another.

               It is a fact that professed atheists ( not humanists )-

    people who over -emphasize their ATHEISM - are among the most

    mean spirited people on  earth.

           When did a group of  ATHEISTS  ever get together to do

    some obvious GOOD anywhere ? What cramped souls !

               Are atheists so much smarter than the ignorant masses ?

    I suspect that most of them simply have defective imagination and

    bad digestion .  Too much of the same old gruel for supper. It

    gives them souls as dead as a doorknob.

               A pitiful sight in their coffins : All dressed up and

    nowhere to go !

Powell right, Jacoby wrong

           The choice of that remarkable man - Colin Powell - for

    Secretary of State - proves that George W. Bush is  not himself

    - whatever his agenda - a drooling right wing fanatic. He is

    in fact a chip off the old block.

              Boston Globe crank columnist Jeff Jacoby is very nervous

    about the Powell appointment: " When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait

    in August 1990, Powell was prepared to let him have it" , writes

    Jacoby .

               The vast majority of the country would not have been

    willing to sacrifice much for the arrogant, oil rich elite of

    Kuwait - who were openly contemptuous of working class American

    soldiers putting their lives in danger to protect their " sovereign "

    plutocracy.

                Imagine a poor black soldier returning from the Gulf

    War to find his elderly mother shivering in a cold slum house....

    couldn't pay the bill that month !

                Knowing all about " The Other America " , do the

    oil billionaires of the world ever declare : " This won't

    stand ! "  ?

               Nor can I imagine poor black soldiers sacrificing

    their lives to keep poor Palestinians HOMELESS.

               I hope Colin Powell does not lose his humanity

    in acquiring great power.

DRAFTED in middle age - a nightmare

                They found me hiding under the bed in my apartment

    - pathetic coward that I am . It had been five years, but they

    caught me. The scene at  THE TRIAL was right out of KAFKA. But

    still I had my own lawyer, a personal friend. He advised me :

          " You got to grow up sometime ,  Ron. The best way to

    deal with this nightmare is with a spirit of resignation."

           " Yea , but  I still dread  the DRAFT. It's not fair now! "

           " Soon you will have to face that great umpire in the sky.

    And what will you have to say for yourself then ? "

                 In cold cowardly panic I signed on the dotted line.

          Just hours later I found myself in  left field at Dodger

    Stadium. A crack of the bat... a fly ball was coming in my direction.

    I  fell down  in front of the wall - but I caught the ball !

                Then I woke up , still in the Twilight Zone.

DRAFTED in middle age - a nightmare

                They found me hiding under the bed in my apartment

    - pathetic coward that I am . It had been five years, but they

    caught me. The scene at  THE TRIAL was right out of KAFKA. But

    still I had my own lawyer, a personal friend. He advised me :

          " You got to grow up sometime ,  Ron. The best way to

    deal with this nightmare is with a spirit of resignation."

           " Yea , but  I still dread  the DRAFT. It's not fair now! "

           " Soon you will have to face that great umpire in the sky.

    And what will you have to say for yourself then ? "

                 In cold cowardly panic I signed on the dotted line.

          Just hours later I found myself in  left field at Dodger

    Stadium. A crack of the bat... a fly ball was coming in my direction.

    I  fell down  in front of the wall - but I caught the ball !

                Then I woke up , still in the Twilight Zone.

When Americans DO co-operate - WOW !

Captured German scientist : " That shows  at any rate that the

    Americans are capable of real co-operation on a tremendous scale. That

    would have been impossible in Germany. Each one said that the other

    was unimportant...  "

           Weizsaker : "  If we had all wanted Germany to win the war

    we could have succeeded ... "

             These Nazi fiends of Science were DEPRESSED that they

    could not give Hitler the ATOMIC BOMB before the Americans

    possessed it .

             But a typical Nazi mentality suggestion : " If the

    Americans and the British were good imperialists they would

    attack Stalin with the thing tomorrow ... but they won't do

    that ."

            The above is reported in General Groves book " Now

    It Can Be Told ".

             Perhaps in 2001 the Americans can co-operate in

    the moral equivalent of the  Manhattan Project - " real

    co-operation on a tremendous scale "  making life happier

    for EVERYBODY in America.

Cooling off the day after

Having voted for Ralph Nader - with no regrets - I was still

    hoping that Al Core might win the presidency by a Hail Mary Pass

    from a CONSERVATIVE Supreme Court.

              But  " Mary " , I  suspect,  refuses  pro- abortion liberals

    miraculous intervention . Also the man himself hardly arouses strong

    political passions. So we could not expect to see MILLIONS of his

    supporters marching in the streets , in a rabid fury over stolen

    VICTORY.

               I could read no villainy in the faces of the Supreme

    Court justices on the front page of the Providence Journal. They

    looked like typical middle class Americans having a rather lively

    debate at a Church picnic -  disputing some point in DIVINITY.

               Can we expect Supreme Court justices to be less human

    than we are, rising above all political preferences ?

                   The problem was that the election was so damm

    close. Florida   has a Republican governor, a Republican legislature.

     Was it not safe to bet on a Bush victory election night - without

    a hint of scandal , fraud , cheating ?

               In any recount the slightest dishonesty on either side

    could have settled the matter. Are Democrats more virtuous than

    Republicans ?

              Both George W. Bush and Al Gore swear by the U.S.

    Constitution . They must - for the present - accept the bizarre

    Electoral College - which political writers have described as an

    accident waiting to happen.

             The REAL villain in this election is the Electoral

    College system -not FOR SALE  state and federal judges.

            Again it is better to work with cool reason to correct

    the legal abomination of having a  truly UNPOPULAR president.

          I suspect that EVERY DAY in office, George W. Bush will

    be reminded by somebody in the media of his illegitimacy.

                Could the TRUTH finally force him to resign ?

         We are only beginning the Bush Error !

Support for school voucher program

          Only  the corrupt power of entrenched teacher unions makes

    Cleveland's school voucher program - struck down yesterday by a

    federal appeals court - a " vitriolic " issue. ( PROJO ,page A3 ,

    Dec. 12 ) .

         According to Robert H. Chanin, the message is " stop playing

    around with vouchers as a panacea ". But the real message is

    " Don't tread on US ! "  ( the NEA ).

             Many latino families, for example , would like to give

    their children the benefits of a morals oriented Catholic education

    - which in the past never neglected to teach kids the ABCs , the

    Three R's , and never failed to turn out outstanding citizens.

               What harm is done by giving these " religious "

    schools a helping hand ?  Surely one can find more shameful - and

    more politically correct - ways to " mis-spend " our tax dollars.

               Look what shining examples of good citizenship the

    public schools are turning out !  Give parents with a conscience

    a break. 
                   Consider the Internet as a gift; it could make

    a religious school a lot less parochial. And that means less

    zealous efforts to convert heathens like me.

" Look and Say " Teachers ?

 I wonder if teachers can READ any better than their

    more backward pupils nowadays. They apply " look and say " training

    to newspaper reading !

            The MAIN TOPIC in the PROJO editorial was the homework

    burden on very young kids. I said - among other things - that

    I have seen 7 year olds crushed by homework. Your editorial

    made a polite suggestion that this was unhealthy.

                  Well I guess I went too far in making THIS

    suggestion :

              HARD ASS TEACHERS BREED BOLSHEVIKS !

            And yes,  some of my best friends are teachers. Ask
    Dr. Bill ( URI , math professor ).

Chaperones for our mentally ill

A clearly disturbed woman up front on the bus was frantically

    - and rather loudly - summing up her wretched life for the bus

    driver...." don't  go to those psychiatrists... don't take their

    drugs... I'm so confused today... "

              While I was standing in line at Citizen's Bank the poor

    woman came through the door and immediately made a pathetic scene.

    Oh my, the line was too long. She would be late for her 2 o'clock

    appointment downtown. A kind lady let her get ahead :

            " Thank you... God will bless you .... Where is

    everybody nowadays. I feel so lonely ... I feel so lonely . "

               Mental health care in Rhode Island ! I reflected.

         Does not the state perceive the necessity to at least

    provide chaperons  for " functional " mentally ill. Such

    confused people as this woman - " I wanted a nice house and kids

    and a family too ... didn't happen ... " - cry out for

    everyday assistance , even when they are living alone.

         Does anybody care ? Any compassionate DEMOCRATS in

    Rhode Island ?

" No Way to Pick A President " - Witcover, Jules

           Rhode Island's own late great Senator John O. Pastore is

    the wise man in Jules Witcover's book "  No Way to Pick a President ".

    Read the next to the last chapter on the electoral system , aptly

    titled : " An Accident Waiting To Happen ".

             Pastore : " I would do away with the whole electoral

    college. I would do away with it completely. I would have the

    people elect the President of the United States on election

    day....  I  say when the people go to the polls the man who

    receives the greatest number of votes should be elected President

    of the people. He is the President of the people of the United

    States, and not the President of the states. It makes no

    difference to me how many electoral votes the people of

    Rhode Island have. "

               Concludes  Witcover : the present electoral college

     makes possible the " installation of person whom the majority

    of Americans don't want. This particular college should

    close its doors . "

               Senator Pastore - of the silver tongue - was

    debating this issue in 1956 with none other than  John

    F. Kennedy.

The law is an ass !

Unlike the venerable institution of SCIENCE , the dreary

    profession of LAW , indulges in know-nothingism . Science

    is endlessly patient in examining the data , rising above

    mere prejudice and partisan squabbling.

               Florida judge  N. Sanders Sauls  played a

    know- nothing role in his recent decision - of enormous

    consequence : the presidency of the United States.

            Re-counting ballots - whatever the outcome - ADDS

    information to a controversy, even if it  SUBTRACTS votes

    from the favorite of The Plutocracy.

           What is LAW but the formal ideological tool of

    a power elite ? 

             The common people have nothing to lose from this

    farce of an election but their illusions - chief of

    them being the illusion of LEGITIMACY .

The everyday ripoff

Your paper had an article recently about rather

    mysterious variations in the price of Dunkin Donuts coffee.

    A cup of Dunkin's coffee is a cup of Dunkin's coffee wherever

    you buy it. Where I buy it I noticed the higher price AND

    the poorer QUALITY. After sipping the morning brew, I wanted

    to complain : " There's no coffee in my coffee! " And that

    is just as bad as Burger King  hamburgers - when there is

    no hamburger in your burger and no FRENCH in the fries !

            A good cup of coffee - the way Dunkin's use to be-

    has a strong aroma and very definite coffee taste - not

    like brown dishwater.

            But the coffee was even worse at the legendary

    " Haven Brothers " across from Providence City Hall.

    Yuck ! Try that on Uncle Raymond in his prime.

             That same afternoon there was no  HOT WATER in

    the HOT WATER WASH at the local laundry. And the

    meatballs in my  meatball sandwich at " Subway "  were

    as big as golf balls - and about as hard.

          My brother complained that the Sunday Projo was

    all advertising. And nothing but junk on radio. And

    a junkie may soon claim the White House.

            They also want $2.00 for a fried egg sandwich

    at Haven Brothers - when you can still buy a dozen eggs

    for a dollar in some places.

            Ripp -offs everywhere ! All -American business !

" senile old farts " - not ad hominem ?

It would be presumptuous of me to give etiquette advice

    to PROJO letter writers. But anyway , Mr. Edwin Ellinwood, your

    name calling - " senile old farts " - is the quintessential

    " ad hominem " argument against elderly Florida voters.

            To be sure genuine " senility " can become a real issue

    in many areas of life - like driving. But on the whole , I

    hope  that I am as sharp as my own mother - and recently-

    departed father - when I " get there " : the dark half of

    old age.

               There is indeed immense and untapped WISDOM in

    old age. Old China was right to RESPECT the elderly. AGE-ism

    is as ugly and unfair as racism and sexism.

             In their WISDOM , most of Florida's senior citizens

    probably voted against George W - a world class ASSHOLE !

No civil war -just frustration in USA

Two weeks ago I told a friend that America 's

    " power elite " is working behind the scenes to resolve the

    election crisis - paying some attention to THE MOB , that

    is THE PEOPLE who think that " majoritarianism " is  just

    a snotty word for popular rule, for DEMOCRACY.

                  The nerve of unwashed masses with ATTITUDE !

    American Democracy has not taught them the proper respect

    for their better - people like Florida's Secretary of

    State , Catherine Harris - a certified member of the what

    the late C. Wright Mills called " The Power Elite ".

             I have been re-reading chapters of  his classic

    sociological study of American society , finding it hardly

    dated. Mills preferred the expression " power elite " to

    the Marxian " ruling class " - it was  a less dogmatic

    conception.

                 Mills wrote perceptively about the " higher

    immorality "  and the " crackpot realism " of a system

    of " organized irresponsibility ".

               And a whole chapter is devoted to  the celebrity.

    The  professional clowns on TV and other media are part

    the system : they serve to distract and bamboozle.

             The REAL elite are rather jealous of our clowns.

    Why should Jay Leno get more attention than  a Dupont

    or a Rockefeller  - or  now even a Bill Gates ?

                 Let us patiently await the decision of

    the " power elite " - which of course denies its own

    existence. The RICH are different from you and me ! To

    be sure !

Mr. Gillis - a waste of URI money

 May I suggest that  Mr. Robert E. Gillis, URI's

    new " permanent affirmative action chief " is nothing

    more than a $78,000 a year hoax ?

            Any inner city school principle can suggest hundreds

    of worthy candidates for help in getting higher education.

            For me the issue is POVERTY - not RACE. Is it OK

    for 20% of white kids to be both poor and hopeless ? Why

    no outreach program for them ?

              What Michael Harrington called " The Other America "

    is indeed a rainbow coalition- black, latino, asian, Indian

    white.  Is it unjust for ANYBODY to be hopeless or is

    there an acceptable POVERTY QUOTA in this country, approved

    by the official friends of the have-nots, The Democrats ?

           After 8 years of Clinton-Gore , things are worse

    than ever in the other America.

            Don't lose sleep over the election outcome !