Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter with its psychoanalysis of the soul
of the plumbing inspector. I won't disagree. As a rule, the
psychoanalysis is more revealing of the analyst than of the patient.
The instant case is no exception. Mr. Ciarmataro functions in a tight,
closed social environment. It's hard for me to imagine that his
actions with respect to the 3 Red Barn Road plumbing do not have
the approval of Mr. Bartlett, the building inspector, who happens
also to be a plumber, and the Board of Selectmen to which the
Building Department is responsible and which pays their lawyers'
bills. What Mr. Ciarmataro would decide in a different environment
is too speculative even to consider. In a month or two, the snow
will have melted, and the landscape will have a new appearance.

I share your respect for Mr. Ciarmataro as an individual. My own
concern found expression in my decision NOT to name him as a defendant
in my appeal, although I understood at the time that I was incurring
a procedural risk of having the case dismissed for failure to join
a necessary party.  I was concerned that intradepartmental hostilities
on Nantucket might even lead to the Selectmen's refusal to pay for his
legal defense. To my view the inscrutable personality of the opponent
invariably rises far above the dry legal formulas in which the
controversy is couched.

Thank you also for your comments about David Brooks' interpretation
of political history. I am, as you know, fascinated by and avid for
new ideas. Brooks' apotheosis of conservatism is no exception. I do
not subscribe to it. I define "government" as the effective exercise
of power, no matter how denominated. Power is unavoidably shared
between public government, - ultimately the courts, - and private
government, - business and charity. Changes in governmental policies
may be acute or chronic; in either case they may make matters better
or worse. Obviously had his column appeared 150 years ago, Mr. Brooks
would have supported slavery, opposed abolitionism and the Emancipation
Proclamation, favored secession. Had his column appeared 60 years ago,
he would have favored non-interference with Dachau, Buchenwald and
Auschwitz, just as today he favors non-interference with torture,
Guantanamo and special rendition; and is ready, when the time comes,
to enlist as one of Sarah Palin's acolytes. The hypothetical opposition
between intellect and passion, between reason and feeling is a red
herring, indicative of little more than the shallowness and frivolousness
of him who advocates it.

I shoveled heavy snow for an hour this afternoon, found it exhilarating
aerobic exercise. But it has made me tired, and I'm concerned that if I
continue writing, I'll write myself into trouble.

Jochen