Extreme Unction indeed!

My mother was never very religious. But yesterday in

    the hospital this very sick -possibly dying - 76 year old woman

    received the last rites of the Catholic Church.

          Luckily she rallied and I was able to talk to her today. She

    still has a strong will to live. Today the chaplain who performed

    the service - once aptly named " extreme unction " - came into

    the room while I was chatting with my mother. All this I felt was

    her business. I went outside to get some fresh air, not wanting to

    experience anymore " unction " than I had to.

          In the September sunshine I had a flash of insight. I asked

    myself: Why does such a madly materialistic society care about an

    old woman 's " spiritual needs " when she is so near death ?

          What a farce ! I concluded that the social order cannot tolerate

    the idea of a mental rebellion -even at the point of death.

         Yes, they want to say that all dying " made peace " with God.

    The chaplain - vulture like - is there to smooth things over- in the

    service of the social order. Later , of course, the family will get

    the bill for his dubious " service ".

           Better not tolerate cursing, irreverent words from the dying,

    They might carry extraordinary weight!

          What if the dying person's last words were : FUCK GOD AND HIS

    WHOLE ROTTEN UNIVERSE !

         Now just for the record my sweet mother would utter no such

    blasphemies .

            But what a breath of fresh air - truly divine inspiration !

          But do not despair. Tomorrow is another day !

" Indifference Kills a child "

I just read your editorial " Indifference kills a child ".

     The David Cash sub-plot of the murder story ( Jeremy Strohmeyer 's

    hideous murder-molestation of a 7-year old girl in the woman's room

    of a Nevada casino. )   reminds me of the shocking 1987 movie " A

    River's Edge " Dennis Hopper has one of his " possessed" roles in

    the movie based a real case of abominable " indifference " :

           A high school kid brutally kills his girlfriend and abandons

    her body in the woods. Friends of the psychotic kid come around to

    look at the girl's pitiful decomposing body. Words spreads beyond

    the demented clique .But nobody reports the crime -for a long time.

         Movie reviewer, Roger Ebert, wrote that there were many op-ed

    articles on the case-which was seen as " symptomatic of a wider moral

    breakdown ".

         I agree with the USA TODAY editorial's point : " People like

    Cash... won't be cured of their inhumanity by the law ."

          One significant detail about the despicable characters in

    " The River's Edge "  : They were already incorrigible drug addicts

    and alcoholics ."

          The Marine Corp general who recently had a letter published

    in USA TODAY on the importance of " character " in life would

    agree that such kids never learned the meaning of the word .

How to up SAT scores

 I just read Elliot's Krieger's good news article reporting that

        SAT scores have in actually increased in Rhode Island - for the first

        time in three years and then only modestly ( 4-points ).

              I remember this advice for improving your SAT score in the mid-

        Sixties at Hope High School: You've got to read, read, READ !

                I still " read, read, READ " but with more adult motivations

        ( curiosity about the world, a desire to manipulate my enemies and

        con my friends , intellectual voyeurism , a certain unsaintly

        pleasure in the misery of OTHERS, strategies for REVENGE, learning

        how to live cheaper and CHEAPER ... a genuine interest in HORROR

        stories ... )

              One of my favorite Twilight Zone stories is " Time enough at

        last !  " ( The hero FINALLY got the time he needed to read, for him

        life's greatest pleasure . )

                 Now then since  my high school days I have peeked into

        those distinctly uninviting Scholastic Assessment Test ( SAT )

        practice books. It struck me way back that one CERTAIN way to

        improve SAT scores is to minimize their BOREDOM. I swear those

        tests are designed by very aberrant minds with a pathological

        need to bore themselves and everybody else to death.

             If the dead could talk, they would protest 99 out of 100

        tedious, pedantic paragraphs STILL found in this momentous

        test.

               It is a wonder that most high school students even stay

        awake for the four hours!

             Let them read paragraphs about SEX IN THE WHITEHOUSE

        ( up to the standards of TIME magazine ) or pop -analysis

        of Princess Diana ( up to NEW YORK TIMES standards ).

               We will discover that we have undreamed of academic

        talent not only in Rhode Island but everywhere else in this

        USA .

Cop needed earplugs!

Downtown the other day, I felt sorry for a police officer

        assigned a spot near road repair or reconstruction. He was futilely

        trying to protect his ears from the painful cacophony of the

        road crew's drills and equipment.

             " That poor cop can be there ALL DAY ", I reflected. If I

        had the time, I might have offered to buy him some ear plugs

        ( they sell for about $2.00 a box ) at the nearby CVS.

            The Police Department should consider these " hazardous to

        hearing " assignments. They should have ear plugs readily

        available for those NOISE FROM HELL spots .

                 Just a thought . My grandfather was Providence cop

        in the Depression era. He probably would have arrested any WISE GUY

        offering to buy him earplugs ! He said he had the South Providence

        beat. He was known as " Red ", not for his politics but for his

        red hair. " Red " Engley ... that side of the family probably

        arrived here in the U.S. with the Mayflower !