assorted stuff & letter to editor

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Dear visionaries,

Watching all the hubbub on the news about Worldcom and Enron has made me 
more thoughtful than usual. And then the recent question about our vision 
for the Moscow of tomorrow arose, and so I just thought to myself that I 
hope we here in Moscow learn the central lesson to come out of all this 
corporate scandal, which is, of course, that you can't legislate morality.

I was chided a week or two ago for posting a letter to the editor I had 
written, but for the life of me I cannot imagine why I shouldn't do it 
again. Posting private correspondence should of course be out, but letters 
to the editor do not seem to me to be in that category.


Dear Editor,

Mike Browne writes to find out how I (and my ilk) would like it if the 
pledge of allegiance contained the words "under Allah." The answer, of 
course, is that I would not like it, not one little bit, and wouldn't say 
it either. But Mr. Browne erred in assuming that I was all hot in favor of 
the current pledge. However I don't like the reference to the generic deity 
of American civil religion currently invoked any more than I would want 
references to Allah, Shiva, or the baseball commissioner. I do lament the 
fact that more members of the religious right are willing and eager to say 
the pledge than are willing to say the Apostles' Creed. Mr. Browne's errror 
was in assuming me to be a member of this religious right. The one thing 
that is heartening about such mistakes is that it shows that despite public 
controversy I (and my ilkish friends) are still operating under radar.

Douglas Wilson