CORRESPONDENCE:

...He may have had a bone to pick with Faulkner...

...The above letter is a case in point...

...ROBERT T. CONNAUGHTON Editor, The Providence Visitor Reply On an issue as complex and signi-ficant as the relationship between church and state in Rhode Island, it is indeed important to have as much in-formation as possible...

...The com-plexities here should keep American so-ciologists busy for the next three gen-erations...

...The statement signed by the 35 priests, religious and lay people taking Bishop Gelineau to task was a forceful one, but it is not necessarily one that reflects the general attitude of the diocesan clergy...

...Again Mr...

...What can a self-exiled, upper-class American tell the Polish-, Italian-, or Mexican-American about his post-W.W.II experi-ences...

...I just do not think they are exclusive or definitive...

...Connaughton's criticisms of my article, I must add: (1) that the co-chaplain's resignation statements, in obedience to the bishop, were still more consistent with their earlier position of advocacy than they were with Bishop Gelineau's new guide-lines...

...As for Gertrude Stein, she knew what it was to experience discrimination as the member of two minorities...

...But how deep and how pas-sionate can a relationship be between people who have disparate traditions...

...As Nicholas von Hoffman has pointed out, both civil rights and the peace movement depended on a coalition of blacks and upper middle class liberals, but I am not sure the coalition the writer hopes for is possible...

...Both stated unequivocally on the public record in both the Providence Journal-Bulletin and the Providence Visitor, the diocesan weekly paper, that they supported Bishop Gelineau's posi-tion, were pleased that he would be-come more personally involved in ad-vocacy of prisoners' rights and added that they were resigning in order to preserve the credibility of any new chaplains who might be appointed...

...McCarthy does not see the possibilities in America that lie in the rich heritage that each family, ethnic group, and region can contribute to an individual's life...

...of a "common moral and spiritual heritage" may in-deed be the product of a pre-Vietnam mentality in America...

...On the basis of a speech by the Providence shepherd on social justice to the Knights of Columbus (Visitor, May 22)-which was challenged again in a public statement by diocesan clergy and laity-one might add, in Milton's words, that the sheep "look up and are not fed...

...The fact that both appear to be seriously challenged now informs us that neither was very secure to begin with...

...I come from a state where we enjoy each other's ethnicity and celebrate it...

...But twentieth century European immigrants were not masters...

...In response to Mr...

...I forgot the last two in writing the article-may they forgive me...

...The immigrant's relationship with blacks must be premised upon new and more substantial grounds...

...I suppose one could say that all kinds of immigrants came as slave la-bor, whether 19th or 20th century- even our Wasp 'oppressors' had forebears who came as indentured or con-vict they were no more en-slaved than the native-born Indians and the Spanish-speaking who pre-ceded them, and, except for the last two, and until lately, the blacks, most of them made their way out via a very American form of the labor movement...

...True re-ports that the advisory commission on corrections called for the warden's dis-missal as if that vote were undisputed...

...In fact the meeting called to approve the report and some members of the commission did not attend casting doubt on the validity of the vote...

...CORRESPONDENCE Locking Out Father Providence, R.I...

...Here, from the June 3 Journal, is a representative story: "The federal government has suspended fi-nancing of a $387,000 correctional pro-gram package because the state De-partment of Corrections has failed to establish drug and alcohol treatment programs, and does not meet minimum standards for training of personnel...

...In another assertion Mr...

...3) that my exten-sive file of articles and public state-ments by various people indicates con-siderable disagreement in reporting and in editorializing on the dismissal, but leaves little doubt about where the Visitor stands...

...For the obstacles I refer him to two recent books: Blue Collar Aristocrats and Trying Out the Dream...

...Letters supporting the Bishop have appeared in the daily and diocesan press and I would dare say- and this is based on my contacts and conversations with priests-that far more clergy support his position than oppose it...

...Perhaps the article might have been more accurate, more reflective of the problems and perhaps we might have been spared that nasty little cheap shot at both the governor and Bishop Gelineau that closes the piece...

...Those state-ments are available on the public record and it is unfortunate that Mr...

...Does the writer think I do not value my own ethnic roots and those of my German, Italian, French, Indian, Swedish, Mexi-can, and Polish cousins...

...Moreover, two members, both highly regarded judges were among those who repudiated the report...

...Have not members of Stein's class been attempting this for years...

...ABIGAIL MCCARTHY...

...and (4) that in any re-porting, one has to be selective with-out, I hope, being unfair...

...Besides, they did not get here before W.W.I, not to mention the one between the states...

...To the Editors: Abigail McCarthy's two recent articles in Commonweal on "Our Search for Roots" [April 25 & May 23] present a familiar and aggravating argument to the ethnic consciousness in America...

...To the Editors: Michael True's article in your June 6 issue "Locking Out the Prison Chaplain" suffers mightily from an oversimplification of a rather com-plex issue...

...What Ms...

...Editorials and news stories in the Providence Journal and Bulletin, un-like those in the diocesan Visitor, have been consistently critical of the ACI administration...

...On June IS, the inmates' legal aid lawyer at ACI resigned in frustration, saying, "The attitude of the state is that the people we are serving are expendable...

...Weil is, indeed, wrong about American culture, but not for the reas-ons that Ms...

...True is entitled to his say...

...In the first place Father Marstin was excluded from the prison's "me-dium" security building not its "mini-mum" facility...

...2) that I did make the 40-mile trip from Worcester to Providence, with a full day of interviews of people directly and indirectly involved in the issue, including the diocesan vicar for community affairs...

...McCarthy misses here would take volumes to ex-plain...

...On the description and interpretation of several incidents, as well as the whole deplorable situa-tion at the ACI and the treatment of prisoners, we obviously differ, and as editor of the diocesan newspaper, Mr...

...True didn't make use of them in pre-paring his article...

...it is also a view shared by others about the bishop's administration thus far...

...That may seem a pid-dling error to one who knows nothing about the Adult Correctional Institu-tions and the significance of the medium building as the place where many of the disputes, fights and disturbances that have torn the prison in the past few years have started...

...The idea (ideal...

...In a related incident, the ACLU has .agreed to handle an inmate's charge that there has been a serious violation of separation of powers concerning re-ligion...

...Connaughton is certainly justified in coming on strong in defense of his bishop...

...That is a far cry from quitting in sup-port of Father Marstin...

...We could disagree, however, without his calling my concluding statement "a nasty little cheap shot," for it seemed to me it grew quite na-turally out of the evidence...

...for that reason Robert Connaughton's letter, including his correction about "minimum" se-curity, is helpful...

...That is simply not true...

...MICHAEL TRUE Searching for Roots Evanston, 111...

...and by my count, that has already begun...

...What I tried to suggest was that our roots are multiple, that we are shaped as much by shared experience and environment as we are by national-ity, and that we are inextricably bound up with each other...

...In another significant error Mr...

...Finally, Ms...

...Connaughton-most priests back the bishop and most prisoners back the warden...

...True is en-titled to his opinion and in a magazine dedicated to presenting opinion you are entitled to permit him to express it with considerable bias...

...Nor can I agree that the views of expatriates rediscovering America are invalid...

...McCarthy presents...

...KENNETH SCAMBRAY Reply I think it is probably just as well to continue the discussion of Our Search for Roots because it seems to have provoked some emotion and misunder-standing...

...More recent developments, like the denial of federal funds, further dra-matize the situation in the prison...

...I find his statement about James Baldwin simply extraordinary...

...It is exactly the perspective of their rediscovery of Americans as Americans that is valuable...

...Finally in what is the most interesting aspect of this episode, most of the inmate organizations-in a prison that is the most high-ly organized in the country-strongly back the administration of the warden...

...they were slave labor...

...What does Baldwin mean by "American whites," anyway...

...True reports that Sister Constance Guertin and Brother Michael Reis, Father Marstin's teammates, quit in support of the priest's position...

...I do wish he'd make the short trip from Worcester to Providence to find out a few of the facts...

...one makes an interpretation on the basis of the evidence, even if-according to Mr...

...The writer's ob-jections are rather arbitrary and based on things I did not say or imply...

...The master-slave relationship is indeed a perplexing and complex one...

...This, it seems to me, is what the hub-bub is all about...

...My concluding paragraph simply suggested that, in matters of ministry and justice, one expects the state's chief executive and the church's shep-herd to disagree, particularly given the USCC statement on correctional re-form...

...Though artists who treat the human condition eloquently in their own right, Baldwin and Stein are quoted with such confidence that one imagines the reader is supposed to stand up and cheer...

...McCarthy writes: "An Italian who grew up on the shores of one of the gray Great Lakes . . . will find his eye unsatisfied in the coun-try of his fathers...

...For example, I did not say that ethnic ex-perience is not enriching...

...I would like, however, to call attention to some er-rors of fact...

...If the post-W.W...

...Naturally Mr...

...II American literary histories are any indication, international American im-perialism found its parallel in the in-ternal cultural imperialism of the 1950s and 60s...

...His defense of the judges and the warden, in light of extensive testi-mony by lawyers directly involved with the prison, is, however, surprising...