WHENCE THE CUTS

I want to thank you for your recent article about where the money is coming from to fund the tax cuts (see "Who Pays for the Tax Cuts?," Jan. 28, by Lance Tapley). It is nice to see someone practicing journalism, not only in the writing of the article, but in the actual conception of it. No one else in Maine will be covering the issue this way anytime soon. As a counselor working with Transitions Counseling Inc., founded to expand access for the poor to counseling, I have a personal interest in this issue. Another part of the overall frame, or what should be part of it, is the community monies that were going to replace mental hospitals — a Reagan promise, I believe. Barbara Kingsolver talks about American amnesia, certainly true with respect to deinstitutionalization. The ending of Absolute Friends, by John LeCarre, is a perfect rendition of the present through-the-looking-glass "reality" we are all working with. Bring back George Orwell. In any case, thanks again,

Mary Lyons

Old Orchard Beach

LANGUAGE OF LOVE

In his "Music" column about Marianne Faithfull (see www.portlandphoenix.com archives for 1/28/05), Ted Drozdowski writes, i.a.: "[The song-title ‘Desperanto’ is] a pun on ‘Esperanto,’ which its proponents once believed would be a universal language."

Two points. First, it’s a very old pun. If you pick up a copy of the Esperanta Antologio, a collection of the best and most memorable poetry written in Esperanto during the language’s first century, you will find on page 35 the five-verse poem "Desperanto" by the Esperanto-speaking Czech poet Stanislav Schulhof, who died in 1919. I doubt, however, that these were the lyrics alluded to in the article.

Second, what does Drozdowski mean "once believed"? To find what current attitudes are, you might want to Google the word Esperanto on your web browser and see what you come up with.

Amike salutas vin,

Don Harlow

Pinole, California