Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors From Olympus, to a poet My compliments to Carol Hamilton on the presentation of her poem, "Becoming Light" [August 13]. This piece integrated Eurocentric...
...Despite my new eminence, I'm still grateful for the courtesy of your reply...
...I'm now an international reporter, a photojournalist, and a philanthropist...
...Thanks...
...WILLIAM DAUENHAUER Wickliffe, Ohio Reaching the heights Recently I asked you to consider publishing my story about my cousin Julia Canny, Irish survivor of Hiroshima...
...This piece integrated Eurocentric tradition with multicultural metaphor, the cumbersome physical contrasted with carefree ethereal...
...Without asking him, we suspect Doyle favors tax breaks for the poor, gun control, protection for Social Security and Medicare, a fair tax system, and a boost in the minimum wage...
...It ought be known that self-appointed critics, like mythic gods, will occasionally give the nod...
...The strongest biblical condemnations have always been directed against those who sin against justice, who deprive the widows and the orphans and the poor of what they need for survival...
...How can you pat a man on the back for such a disjointed set of values...
...As the article ["Doyle for the Defense"] makes clear, Kevin Doyle's values include a belief that a death-row inmate may need a lawyer for survival, and a conviction that infants in the womb may need an advocate to survive...
...Nine were silent, three (including you) replied negatively, one signaled "maybe," and one—the Western People, a newspaper serving the west of Ireland— chose to run with it...
...I submitted the article to fourteen publications...
...Recently, after accepting your offer of a free shortterm subscription, I read the issue of August 13 and would like to tell you what I think...
...I proffer this unsolicited critique in the hope that aspiring poets may persevere...
...I'm told their favorite charity is Western Care, which will receive the sum of fifty dollars...
...From the editors: It was easy...
...The Democratic party in recent years has increased the minimum wage, has tried to give tax benefits to the poor, has fought the huge tax cuts planned by Republicans that would primarily benefit the wealthy, has pushed for more gun control, and has worked to protect Social Security and Medicare and to expand health care to all...
...They even published three of my photographs...
...ED MURPHY Falls Church, Va...
...Commonweal 4 September 24,1999...
...It is incomprehensible to me that you could implicitly designate Kevin Doyle as a hero when your writer reports that Doyle quit the Democratic party "because of its unyielding prochoice platform...
...Finally, we have word from a source in a very high place that not all its residents are Democrats...
...You declined, but I really appreciated the courtesy of your reply...
...Lyrical ecumenicity takes for granted talent...
...The one true faith I subscribed to your periodical in 1950 but canceled my subscription in the early 1990s because I was more and more unhappy with the direction the magazine was taking...
...The editor wanted to know my fee for the piece...
...So there you have it...
...WILLIAM J. WIEDNER Elk Grove, Calif...
...Knowing it would be, at best, in the low hundreds, I played the big shot, telling them to give my honorarium to a charity of their choice...
...The lines, "even as the flesh draws down, flattens...we must levitate, glide across that distance," may be grasped alike by a holy man in India or a Catholic in Kansas...
...The gentleman you praised as "a lawyer with Catholic convictions" has in reality "strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel...
Vol. 126 • September 1999 • No. 16
