Kudos to Jude Plante of Warwick !

       There is plenty wrong with taking perks Mr. Pisaturo, thinks Jude

    Plante of Warwick . ( " Your Turn ", Providence Journal- March 2 )

        Carlo, the city council president, has to be told this by the irate

    voter. No, he should NOT get his business parking lot paved gratis by the

    D'Ambra Construction Co. No he -and his " guests "- should  NOT be admitted

    to the Showcase Cinemas for a token $ 1.00 !

         The average working stiff in Warwick has to work at least an hour at

    a decidedly non-perky job just to get ONE  family member a movie ticket.

        Incidentally the most popular movie now, The Titanic, is a perfect

    metaphor for our capitalist system. Perhaps Mr. Pisaturo prefers to drown

    first class ? The CRASH is coming !

        How can the perky Pisaturo keep an eye out on the questionable decisions

    of one Warwick Public Library director , Doug Pearce ? Or is corruption a

    a merry family affair in Warwick ?

" I Was A Teenage HATER ! "

Headline page A7 ( Feb.27) : " Fla. students charged with publishing

    racist underground book ". A bunch of honor students - without honor but

    driven no doubt by Poe's " imp of the perverse " than malignant, truly

    murderous racism. I side with the ACLU here: the crude 20 page, handwritten

    booklet should be protected " free speech "- nasty as it is. There may

    be among the juvenile culprits one  capable of producing an American

    version of " Mein Kampf " - but we must for now let him be.

        The best anti-dote to racism is really knowing even a few of the

    despised group. A teen-age boy in agony with a metal splinter in his

    eye- a boy who is a budding racist- may have a different perspective

    after having that splinter removed by a compassionate and competent

    emergency room doctor- who just happens to be BLACK!

         Little episodes like that can make a difference. The media should

    focus more attention on the numerous black people who contribute a

    significant skill to the community - and have never been anything but

    decent and law abiding citizens all their life.

       In  Rhode Island  I have always been impressed with one Dennis Langley-

    a distinguished black man . He may recall my name from way back. To know

    this man is to be cured of malicious racism forever.

A character out of " Oliver Twist "

I read the first sentence of " Pure nonsense " today  ( Feb. 23 West

    Bay -" Your Turn " ) and said to myself: " an A.H Liddle production."

       Sure enough ! In his  Oliver Twisted mind you must distinguish between

    mass hunger and a lack of food . As if there was only a very tenuous

    connection.  Beware of Marxist propaganda ! he warns.

        Lesser minds- but perhaps bigger hearts - see a problem here and

    organize events such as the " Hunger Banquet ". If I understand this

    conservative correctly , he thinks that the hungry are- for the most

    part- inefficient.

        OK there may be an element of truth here. Is Mr. Liddle so secure

    and self-confident himself that he never sees himself knocking on the

    door of an Amos House ? Does he himself live by wages or income from

    investments? What if worshiped Stock Market were to crash again ?

        Before teaching the hungry efficiency is it not best to appease

    their hunger FIRST ?

         Mr. Liddle seems to me like Charles  Dickens character - right

    out of " Oliver Twist ".

       " You want MORE ! "  you say. " What a silly, wicked boy ! "

A big factor in mental health

My personal experience with a number of mentally ill people -with

no detectable organic brain damage - is that their  own COGNITION -the

way they perceive the world, their general UNDERSTANDING of reality -

is a big factor in determining whether there is any light at the end

of their very dark tunnels.

     When nothing can get them out of their chronic  self-absorption,

not only can we be sure they are hopeless cases but we must we must

guard  against the contagion factor.  If there is such a thing as a

" contact high ", there is also a " contact low ". The mentally ill


are expert at poisoning the  mental atmosphere of " healthy " people

who do not share their torments.



         When they get religion it often only makes  them even more

insufferable. It does not liberate their souls but  makes them even

more a prisoner of the sick ego. If you can seriously believe that the

Supreme Being is listening with the greatest attention to your everyday

whining,  your  religious fanaticism will only intensify.


    Today organized religion has become   an exploiter  of private

lunacy. I could describe this process in detail in the case of a family

member. But  what if a skeptical psychiatrist   - knowing that a patient's

religion is part of the problem not the solution- dares not challenge

it for fear of the social consequences ?


      Is there any drug out there that can actually free such people

from religious MADNESS ?   My relative's " reality " is God and himself

and his immediate family ( he is divorced )- everything else in the vast

universe - which beckoned someone like Einstein as a liberation- is

peripheral matter.

    " Get out of yourself ! " How often do we hear that sage advice.?

   It is still good advice for the mentally ill. But we must provide

them with a compass and a map.