" Hello,City Hall.."

Good morning, Mr.Bakst,distinguished columnist of
   distinguished newspaper.I'm glad to see that you
   finally have an e-mail address. I wanted to praise
   a number of your recent columns-which reflected
   a rather bold liberalism here in Rhode Island -
   gay rights, Patrick Kennedy's position on the
   bombing of Yugoslavia ,etc.
        I told a politically savvy friend at a
   bus stop that a  Bakst column on Mrs. DiPrete
   was really quite sympathetic, although on the
   whole the Projo seemed to be hounding her
   family ruthlessly.Lately they seem to be laying
   off them -or perhaps the subject just dried up.
      One comment about the mess at City Hall:
    Can't Mayor Cianci see the literal MESS in front
    of City Hall ? Kennedy Plaza is often a disgrace
    with garbage all over the place.
         That area should be immaculate at all
    times. Visitors to Rhode Island surely take
    notice!
       I've been tempted to take a big green garbage
     bag with me one morning and clean up the place
     myself. But I would certainly be arrested and
     examined for evidence of mental instability.
       And I would immediately be registered as an
     enemy of the venerable labor union in charge
     of cleaning up the place.

           Have a nice day   RR

The deep philosophy of Jay D. Paul

I gather from Jay D. Paul's distinctively reactionary
   letter in today's Projo ( June 26 ) that he is a very
   immature ," intellectual "  RIC grad student infatuated
   with a silly ,obnoxious, undemocratic, and yes, UNAMERICAN
   Social- Darwinist ideology.
      The state must reward the rich and punish the poor.
   The " uncreative masses " should " bear the brunt of
   the costs of capitalist progress.After all that is what
   the masses are for ! "
       Did not communist totalitarians also think that the
   contemptible masses should at least serve Historical
   Progress ?
       I doubt if even Bill Gates has such a grandiose
   and perniciious view of his remarkable success. I'll
   bet in his heart of heart he sees himself as the nerdy
   boy next door who made good.
     A mere master of the world market hardly qualifies
   as supreme being and natural Aristocrat!
      And RIC is last place to indulge aristocratic
   fantasies.

       Our capitalist society has produced remarkably
   generous families -like the Kennedys - who have
   devoted themselves to democratic ideals, and who
   understand the meaning of words like COMPASSION and
   JUSTICE.
        The Social -Darwinist philosophy will get
   nowhere in this country. I doubt if the intellectual
   punk Jay D. Paul will be thinking this way ten years
   from now.
        Life has way of taking the haughtiness out of
   most of us. But there remain the incorrigible cranks.

     A bad toothache will cure the average Social-Darwinist!


-- ------
response from R. Marshall:
Ron--I had to write to tell you how impressed I am by your response to
Jay D. Paul's silly Limbaugh rhetoric which he chose to engage in the
opinion pages of the ProJo. Social Darwinism is a creed which Gingrich
failed miserably to sell to the public. A bad Machiavellian, he proved
to be no Prince!
In any event, the Republican Right will eventually drown in it's own
dogmatic swamps. To put it on a daily human level--nobody likes a
stinker! Gore Vidal long ago summed up the three-fold agenda of the
Right

1) Make more money
2) lower our taxes
3) punish the poor

Somethings never change. Undoubtedly our young
reactionary, Jay D. Paul will grow not wiser, but more crankish with
age!

- - - - - response from D. Brussat:

From: "David Brussat" <dbrussat@projo.com>
To: Ron Ruggieri <ronald.ruggieri@excite.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: The deep philosophy of Jay D. Paul
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 13:41:39 -0400
Message-ID: <3777B3D3.9A78A639@projo.com>

Ron - Don't you think there was a lot of tongue in Mr. Paul's
cheek, not evident until the last graf of his letter when he begins to
speak of cutting off the welfare folk so that the rich producers can be
more fecund? Or something like that. It seemed obvious to me, but maybe
I am wrong and he really is that Spenglerian. Frankly, although I would
not take the policy prescription to such extremes, I think, if indeed he
is serious, he's right. - Dave

Dale Carnegie and Fidelity

             Marc Stuart wrote an interesting letter yesterday -" Fidelity

    needs to hire a new PR man"- in which he referred  ( sneeringly ? )

    to that all time great classic of public relations, Dale Carnegie's " How

    to Win Friends & Influence People ".

            The book has been around for almost 7 decades. Every respectable

    high brow feels compels to dismiss it as contemptible capitalist

    swindling made respectable.

            Just yesterday I came across a condensed version of it in a 1937

    " Reader's Digest " at the URI library.

            I found it still entertaining and still giving even very ordinary

    people sound advice on " getting ahead " not by egoism but by coming

    to terms with natural egoism of human beings.

             Perhaps  Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer could have written it. Did

    not one critic write that Tom - more than Huck -was destined to become

    the town mayor ?

              Readers of "Tom Sawyer " will recall how Tom persuaded his

    friends that there was nothing more exhilarating than white -washing the

    fence - a chore he loathed ?

             Such benign selfishness made this country great - or at least

    made the rich richer.

James Dean would understand her

      I was shocked by this young diarist's entry:A
   13 year old girl with suicidal thoughts!(www.opendiary.com)
   Late winter melancholy in the early springtime of
   life.
        I'll bet that eternal adolescent idol-James Dean-
   would have understood her. A memorable scene in " Rebel
   Without A Cause ": Dean screams to his obtuse,middle class
   parents, " You're tearing me apart! "
      Could parental disharmony have traumatized this
   sensitive young girl-who thought herself neither
   pretty nor popular ?
        In that same film Dean's co-star lovely Natalie
   Wood -hungry for her daddy's attention-is coldly rejected
   by him. As if she were now too old to be hugged and
   kissed by a father.
       We can all be better, more understanding people.
   As Dean said to his dying father ( Raymond Massey )in
   " East of Eden " : " A man has a choice! "