Pacheco -raw material for a novel

 I don't know the FACTS about the  recent tragedy at

    the Providence Journal Production Facility. But I did read very

    carefully the Sunday Journal  story yesterday which focused on the

    mind of the disturbed employee, one Carlos Pacheco.

                Pacheco  lived most of his 38 years in my old neighborhood,

    Washington Park in Providence, R.I.  In one generation the neighborhood

    has evolved from lower middle class -blue  collar to what it is

    today - a semi-ghetto dominated by Hispanic immigrants.

         Who today remembers the Washington Park of the Eisenhower-Kennedy

    years, the time of post war prosperity ?

                One THEME that strikes me  in the Carlos Pacheco tragedy

    is the " blue collar blues ".   In truth most of the  Providence

    Journal " white collar " types at 75  Fountain St. don't have a

    clue about the " blue collar " culture at the Production Journal

    Production Facility off Kinsley Ave.

               The key word in the understanding of the work place

    environment at Production Facility is  ALIENATION. You have to

    understand that " political correctness " is not the rule in a

    place like that.

               The average drudge over there is not delicate  in

    expressing his  or her opinion of an odd ball like Carlos Pacheco.

                You can imagine him being called a SCAB and a FAGGOT

    MAMMA's BOY every night at work. A lot of the workers at the

    Production Facility are not PROJO employees but  " contemptible

    temps " sent by agencies such as " Preferred Labor ".  Most of

    the temps don't even speak English.  So even a blue collar supervisor

    might not be  aware of work place harassment.

                 Does anybody write novels anymore about blue collar

    misery in America ?

                 James T. Farrell would have loved the  PROJO Production

    Facility as background for another Studs Lonigan story.

              Like Studs, Carlos Pacheco may have been saved  by some

    rudiments of middle class culture. Was the Public Library as

    foreign to Carlos as the Dallas Cowboys are to PROJO professionals ?

                 Too dumb for management, too stupid to join the union -

    Carlos Pacheco was a  victim of a decaying social class- blue collar

    America.