Free philanthropist Bernard Madoff !

I was outraged to learn that the great Ponzi Scheme Artist, Bernard Madoff, was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 by a federal judge who called his CRIME "extraordinary evil". But swindling some of the world's wealthiest people out of their fortunes does not rate as a monstrous crime to most working class people- who would never enter Bernie's Wall Street office with the daydream of turning a year's savings into their private retirement fortune.

I say FREE BERNARD MADOFF- a victim of grotesque capitalist injustice. If I were, by some Twilight Zone magic, the president of the United States, Bernie would serve my administration in the same way that old Joe Kennedy served FDR. "It takes a crook to catch a crook", the shrewd New Deal Roosevelt reasoned.

Imagine all those super-greedy stock market players who wanted Wizard Bernie to quickly convert a mere one hundred million to a billion. And often Bernie delivered the fruit of their labor gift wrapped for Christmas or the Jewish holiday.

In truth Bernard Madoff was acting as the very wrath of the Old Testament God. His picture should be on the wall of Amos House in Providence. He showed the two-bit capitalists who darkened his office door that GREED is never good!

Bernie compares prison to a college campus. Like The Christ he gathers his adoring disciples around him. And one day- after time served- they too will open an office with grandiose visions of mega-philanthropy.

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com