Dear Marion,

You're astute. It shows how dumb I am that it hadn't
occurred to me that the beautiful lady unspooling the
telephone wire over the heads of Indians, buffalo,
settlers and Conestoga Wagons might have been you.
Now at least I have a notion of what you look like
when you're not contorted with laughter, and how you
travel when you leave your broomstick at home.

I'm embarrassed also to admit, that on all the issues
you raise I believe we are in agreement, even in total
agreement, an unfortunate condition which arises from
my efforts to understand and from my conclusion that I
do understand, and from my inability to disagree with
what I believe I understand, inasmuch as understanding
integrates even a foreign viewpoint into ones conceptual
universe. That's what understanding is all about.

The obvious problem is that total agreement obviates all
epistolary correspondence. Absent differences of opinion,
there's nothing to argue, nothing to write about. Nit-
picking would be an inacceptable non-solution. My
preference by far is to expand the intellectual arena,
and to discover challenges which will precipitate at least
temporary differences of opinion to sustain the
correspondence until having been resolved, they are replaced
by their successors.

I enjoy writing to you because you're so smart and so well
educated, even if those male chauvinists at Wisconsin wouldn't
give you tenure, - you understand more than enough about
statistics and economics. So let's go: Everything you ask
me to do as a loyal, progressive, open-minded, right-thinking
liberal citizen has a statistically measurable consequences
and has costs some of which are defined and predictable, some
of which are imprecise and require again to be statistically
estimated.

We have, as you know, this house in Konnarock, Virginia for
which subsequent to my mother's death, I wrote a trust because
a half interest went to my sister, a half interest went to me;
I wanted to disclaim my portion to avoid potential estate
taxes, which were then very high; I wanted also to avoid the
hassle of a tenancy in common which has the consequence that
no one can do anything without the other's consent. A trust
was the perfect solution: I could disclaim my beneficial interest
which would go to Klemens, I could be the trustee and manage the
property. The only limitation: Virginia won't trust non-residents,
and requires at least one resident co-trustee. The obvious solution:
I and Margaret, who does everything I do, become residents of
Virginia and register to vote in the old health center in Green Cove, 
where my father used to stage well-baby clinics, five miles west
of Konnarock on Route 58.

I'm getting there. October comes, election day approaches. Margaret
and I have strong feelings about the presidential candidates. We'd
like very much to vote. However, we can't get an absentee ballot
without telling lies, namely pretending that Belmont is our vacation
home, and telling a lie to get an absentee ballot is a felony, and
even though Margaret and I possibly deserve to spend five years in the
penitentiary for all sorts of other reasons, think of what it would do
to the Federal budget, if every one committed such crimes as pretending
they were on vacation when in fact they were seeing patients and
submitting HCFA-1500 forms to Medicare for reimbursement, and were
therefore imprisoned for five years.  The alternative would be to
journey from Belmont to Green Cove to vote, and of course, that's
exactly what Joseph and Mary did when they traveled from Nazareth
to Bethlehem, so Jesus could be born in a manger in the City of David
as Isaiah had predicted, - except that at age 85, Margaret is too old
to have a baby (her name after all, isn't Sarah) and I'm not God,
although I've entertained the possibility of applying for the job.

So what's the cost of being a good citizen and driving from Belmont MA
to Green Cove VA to vote. It's 855 miles each way. The motel charges
$40 a night plus 9% Pennsylvania tax. Gas was $3.50 a gallon. Total
cost: 326.60 or $163.30 per vote. Stated in that way, it would obviously
be much more rational economically just to go ahead and buy the two votes.
Considering the local unemployment rate and poverty level, one should be
able to buy a vote for $10, which would leave $306.60 to donate to the
favorite candidate's campaign or to NARAL or to Move-On.org, to the
United Lutheran Church or to the nearest Jewish congregation which is
fifty miles away in Bristol TN.

Now, let's consider the effect of my vote on the outcome of the election,
which is actually decided by a plurarity of 5 million votes. Here my
statistics fails me, because in considering the effect of my efforts
to be a good citizen, I must also consider the risk that on my Hegira
I would be involved in an automobile accident fatal to the parents of
ten children, the costs of whose orphanhood would also require to be
included in the cost-benefit calculation of my casting that one in
ten million vote for the candidate who will reverse the course of
American history and usher in the golden age. One newspaper pundit
opined that the chances of my vote changing the election's outcome
is much less than the chance of my being hit by lightning on the
clear cloudless November day when I appear at the Green Cove Health
Center to cast my vote.

At least one participant in this discussion is insane, and I'm
quite prepared to consider the possibility that it is I.

Jochen