Raymond Buxton- once again criminalizing the insane

  An alert reader of your CRIME story on January 31 (  " Long denied parole, rapist freed on ' good time'  " ) will note that Raymond Buxton " was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder " , that he had delusions and hallucinations - " such as believing in radio transmissions from one of his teeth and that the ACI was withholding Oscar and Grammy awards that he'd won ".  What is the rational basis for criminal punishment for such a deranged mind ? How can  " free will " and " knowing right from wrong "  be applicable here ?  How are people with broken minds more wicked than people with a cancerous liver ? 

      

        The president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, Richard Ferruccio, says " We do hope.... inmates are being rehabilitated here, with classes and programs ". ACI  classes and programs  for the  severely mentally ill like Raymond Buxton ?  A professional psychiatrist supervises these programs ?  Along with a resident exorcist and an astrologer to assure his future " good time "  ? 

          The idea that ANY inmates - most certainly not the clearly and diagnosed insane - are being rehabilitated in the American Gulog is  absolutely false.  Why does not the Providence Journal  consider  planting an investigative reporter at the ACI ?. Perhaps an honest report will get the attention of the United Nations or the World Court. Shine some light on this infernal darkness ?

            Gathering dust in our public libraries are whole collections of scholarly books on the nightmare of the U.S. prison system. The daily abuse of helpless, voiceless prisoners is just plain  unacceptable injustice.  But fear not citizens of Rhode Island this guy  Raymond Buxton -and many other  ACI inmates just like him: " The Department of Corrections has an excellent probation department " , says Peg Langhammer.

              

                    " Counselors who are highly trained in supervising "...... the severely mentally ill ?

February Reader's Digest article : INSANITY of closing mental hospitals

Just weeks after the Providence Journal published my letter observing the neglected mentally ill in  Providence's Kennedy Plaza ( " Misery of the mentally ill all around us ", Dec.!5 ) I was pleased to read this article, " Schizophrenic Killer- My Cousin " by Mac McClelland in February's  Reader's Digest.  The article makes the same points on the moral catastrophe of deinstitutionalization  with a personal story of a horrific murder that could have been prevented: "  It's insanity to kill your father with a kitchen knife. It's also insanity to close hospitals, fire therapists, and leave families to face mental illness on their own ". The writer goes on to detail the " vanishing mental health safety net " in this wealthy country. " Today there is one public psychiatric-care bed per 7,100 Americans- the same ratio as in 1850 ".

          My own beloved but severely mentall ill brother was also a victim of this not so benign neglect . I found his bloated, blackened, unrecognizable corpse in his Warwick apartment one very hot day last June. My sister and I were bringing him his  lithium refill. His medical doctor had delayed it because Ray had failed to keep an appointment ( not cooperating ? ) . Ray was a radio technician for the Warwick Police Department for some 20 years.  A funeral  contingent showed up at the Pawtucket Cemetery to fire off shots in his honor. " Finally, a little dignity for Ray ", I thought. At the wake his two daughters and old friends agreed sadly that our mental health system stinks. Not for nothing Ray talked to God at night in the tone of old Job of the Old Testament. He was a devout Catholic to the end.

            We hope change is in the air.

Raymond Buxton- once again criminalizing the insane

   An alert reader of your CRIME story on January 31 (  " Long denied parole, rapist freed on ' good time'  " ) will note that Raymond Buxton " was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder " , that he had delusions and hallucinations - " such as believing in radio transmissions from one of his teeth and that the ACI was withholding Oscar and Grammy awards that he'd won ".  What is the rational basis for criminal punishment for such a deranged mind ? How can  " free will " and " knowing right from wrong "  be applicable here ?  How are people with broken minds more wicked than people with a cancerous liver ? 

      

        The president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, Richard Ferruccio, says " We do hope.... inmates are being rehabilitated here, with classes and programs ". ACI  classes and programs  for the  severely mentally ill like Raymond Buxton ?  A professional psychiatrist supervises these programs ?  Along with a resident exorcist and an astrologer to assure his future " good time "  ? 

          The idea that ANY inmates - most certainly not the clearly and diagnosed insane - are being rehabilitated in the American Gulog is  absolutely false.  Why does not the Providence Journal  consider  planting an investigative reporter at the ACI ?. Perhaps an honest report will get the attention of the United Nations or the World Court. Shine some light on this infernal darkness ?

            Gathering dust in our public libraries are whole collections of scholarly books on the nightmare of the U.S. prison system. The daily abuse of helpless, voiceless prisoners is just plain  unacceptable injustice.  But fear not citizens of Rhode Island this guy  Raymond Buxton -and many other  ACI inmates just like him: " The Department of Corrections has an excellent probation department " , says Peg Langhammer.

Notorious Foot Licker Redux

 Police news in the Providence Journal , Jan.28: "  Raymond Dublin, the notorious ' Footlicker in trouble again ". The Boston Globe published my comments on him in a letter dated August 31, 2003: " Free the Footlicker ! " it was titled. " At worst Ray Dublin represents Providence at its most kinky ". I thought he had received " a rather harsh sentence of 18 months in prison ".

         Now more than a decade later we see how hopeless it is to process pathological cases through our criminal justice system. When will we cease to make severe mental illness a crime ? When will the courts rise above a Dark Age understanding of the human soul ? In general, our legal system acts as if intellectual giants like Darwin, Marx and Freud never existed. No more lawyers like Clarence Darrow out there ? No more editors like H.L. Mencken ?

Addicted in Vermont- end the war on drugs !

   The governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, decided to devote a state -of-the-state message to a single topic ( Providence Journal editorial, Jan. 25, "  Addicted in Vermont " )  " well because I feel that strongly about it ".  Shumlin said : " let's start facing this as the health crisis it   is " ( PBS Newshour,Jan 9 ). He thinks "  this is the issue that nobody wants to talk about  ".

            Those of us " radicalized " by the tumultuous events of the late 60s feel strongly about and have never stopped talking about the foolish and expensive " war on drugs ".  The legalization of " medical " marijuana in many states should reopen this long smothered debate.  As disastrous as alcoholism is for so many people, hardly anybody talks about the blessings of Prohibition anymore.  And yet one can find wine poetry in the Bible.  All drugs-like heroin- should have a " warning "  for users.  So many  illegal drugs only puff up a police state.

          Some illegal drugs like LSD,  associated with the late Dr. Timothy Leary ,seem to open the door to a new spiritual dimension  if used safely . I recall  with euphoric affection  Leary's  luminous words I read on the front page of the Providence Journal  decades ago : " We live in a highly organized insane asylum... " . That is just one explanation for the need for drugs and alcohol.    And  the young inspired Karl Marx wrote profoundly about " alienated " individuals in capitalist society.  We all have our " opium "of choice.  Just don't go  " on the road " with it.

Could Edward Snowden explain this ? Big Brother is watching all dangerous pacifists ?

  Bob, the depressing news about Fallujah revived my interest in the movement against another futile war in another era- Vietnam. I  bought an old copy of Ron Kovic's classic " Born on the Fourth of July " at my favorite place in downtown Providence, the Cellar Door Book Store.  I reread  Kovic's pathetic story over the weekend. This morning I went to  Google to get an update on Ron Kovic, a guy now just about my age. I  tried to click on the rest of this  : " Ron Kovic-Breaking the Silence in the Night.....Disabled Vietnam War veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic became a pacifist after seeing what war does to civilians ".

     Now this has happened to me before when seeking background  information on prominent left-wing activists in the United States : A message - ACCESS DENIED ...

                      " Internet access to  the requested website has been denied based on your user profile and organization's Internet Usage Policy ". ( suggestion- I am seeking out pornographic material ? )

             Is there something pornographic and obscene about pacifism and anti-war organizations ?    I thought you might be interested in this.  And maybe the notorious traitor -or whistleblower Edward Snowden. Most Americans see him as a heroic whistleblower. Big Brother is watching innocuous Me ?

Money has fascinating mathematical properties ( Bernie Madoff scheme )

     In a letter published January 15 Robert E.Sandberg is concerned along with Electric Boat's Jeffrey Geiger about R.I. students " lacking technical math and science skills ". As an employer himself he calls for a " shakeup of the educational system ".   So  let us " get rid of educators " who fail to deliver a quality product ?   I don't think it is the fault of fine teachers if they are not also motivation experts.   What can possibly make up for real enthusiasm and interest  for  seemingly dry as dust math and science subjects ?  How can you get a bright-normal kid to spend an hour or two alone in a quiet room with a  heartless math text  ?

          A  gifted high school math teacher -knowing his students are mainly interested in money and jobs - might point out to them that money in itself as an abstract means of exchange has fascinating mathematical properties. What you can do with money - no matter how dishonest you're willing to be- is limited by money's abstract properties.

             The man who exposed the world class swindler Bernie Madoff-guilty  of the largest financial fraud in history- Harry Markopolos-on CBS's 60 Minutes explained how he was able to figure out  Madoff's scheme before anyone else:  "   You would never expect him of fraud. Unless you knew the math ", Markopolos said " It took me five minutes to know that it was a fraud ".

              Here a surprise to high school students : " I 've taken all the calculus courses , from integral to differential calculus, as well as linear algebra. And statistics, both normal and non-normal.  " says my nerdy hero .  A lot of this stuff  is taught  at any community college. I suspect two years of high school algebra  might suffice to sniff out many cases of big-time financial fraud.

               But  also a little 19th century physics immediately gets us to the heart of  Madoff's heartless crime.  Recall the grand  Law of Conservation of Energy ?  To put it simply : you can't get something from nothing ! 

                Try this approach you depressed math teachers out there. Soon you might be surprised with a Golden Apple Award  and TV fame for a day.   And take more rigid math courses all you Rhode Island high school kids.    And see  how quickly you can also figure out your future  state and federal unemployment benefits. Knowledge is power-even if ignorance is bliss!

Fitzpatrick column: moral imagination of Gina M. Raimondo

         After reading Edward Fitzpatrick's column  " Will Raimondo's bus stall or reach the State House ? " ( Jan. 14 ) ,  I am left perplexed by the moral imagination of the Democratic General Treasurer, Gina M. Raimondo. She seems as clueless on social issues as any Republican Tea Party favorite. According to Fitzpatrick she called for using " social impact bonds " to fight problems like homelessness. The idea here is that" philanthropists and foundations " would actually profit from their generosity ?. The New Philanthropy suits the New Democrats - a long way from the Helping Hand of the New Deal. " We need social services that work ", Raimondo said. So the only solution to the social problems of capitalism is more capitalism ? Thank God there is at least one lucid socialist in the Senate, Senator Bernie Sanders  of Vermont. Perhaps he might consider running for president ?  Working people make this society work. There is nothing magical about our bloated plutocracy. Even that anti-socialist curmudgeon H.L. Mencken made fun of our plutocracy- all inferior to his preferred aristocracy of natural brains and talent.

           The Democratic Party is losing its progressive soul. In realty it has rejected even liberalism as a dirty word. Obama a Marxist- how ridiculous !

The New Jersey bully-boss tradition

      Perhaps the Stephen King horror movie " The Dead Zone " might also have been a warning about potential fascist leaders coming to power in America.  In " The Dead Zone " an ambitious maniac politician passes himself off as just  a regular guy, folks. There is a tradition of bully-bosses in New Jersey. Students of American history will recall the notorious Frank Hague, mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947- " the grandaddy of Jersey bosses ".  He waged a personal hatred war against organized labor and all other forms of " communism ". He was also corrupt and greedy.

       Whenever I see New Jersey  governor Chris Christie doing his bully routine, I am reminded of the great lines of Rossano Brazzi  playing the romantic anti- hero Frenchman Emile  in  the famous Hollywood musical " South  Pacific. Speaking of the growing darkness  before  World War II,  Emile says to an American naval officer : " When I was 22 I thought the world hated bullies as much as I did. I was foolish.... I have seen these bullies multiply and grow strong and the world sat by and watched ".

     The  whole world is still watching !

Bad jobs report- letting young people rot

  " December Jobs Growth Falls Far Short of Expectations ",  reads  the  January 10 news headline.  The federal government should not let so many jobless workers rot-based on the bizarre principle that if they are not immediately useful to the capitalist class, they are useless in some absolute sense. All the economic wisdom painfully learned in the decade of the Great Depression has been all but forgotten in this present decade of the Great Recession.

        For centuries humanity struggled to exist,  literally worked its way out of a bestial existence- without the blessing of the " free market ". When did the common people of America ever vote for this capitalist insanity and inhumanity ?

         Bring back some New Deal common sense. There is enough real work out there for every healthy human being.   President Obama has a lot more to learn from FDR than from  Ronald Reagan -with his voodoo economics and White House astrologer.

Throwing long term unemployed off the bridge ?

       I just voted YES to your on line poll ( Jan. 7 )  : " Do you support extending federal unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed? ? "  But it is about time politically literate Americans consider a proposal made by the Green Party and many democratic socialists and many New Deal progressives years ago: a guaranteed income -one that protects basic human dignity- for all Americans ? Republicans worry about big budget deficits. May I suggest-after more than a decade of a failed foolish war on terrorism,  several decades of a failed foolish war on drugs- that we make a drastic cut in the police state budget ?

          And where are all the dedicated pacifists hiding lately ? Are they stupefied by our Nobel Peace Prize president ?  All the pacifists have been pacified ?