Dear Anne,

This morning when I awoke, I had various matters on my mind, and I wondered
to whom I should write them. Since they are legal thoughts, and since I owe
you a letter. it seems obvious that you should be the victim. I hope I don't
annoy you. Please remember the "delete" key. It's right under your finger
tips, and will clear the air of smoke and fog and make it breathable again.
Again let me express my hope that Dan (and you) are recovering comfortably.

First let me thank you for your letter about your gardening. I always wanted
to be a gardener, but never got down on the ground on my knees until I can
no longer get up. My wife Margaret loved to garden; she would never let me
help her because she wanted to do it her way.  Voltaire wrote: 
La vie est hérissée de ces épines, 
et je n'y sais d'autre remède que de cultiver son jardin.
Life is bristling with thorns, 
and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden.

Trying to get to the bottom of things, specifically to understand our constitutions
a bit better, I've been reading Montesquieu's "L' Esprit des Lois", so simple and
clear that I can (almost) read it without a dictionary. That may be the key to
this particular Pandora's box. I'm much impressed with Montesquieu's insight that
human society is tranquil only if it is ruled by a despot. The corollary: that
conflict is the essence of freedom! That's why we need more lawsuits; that's why
lawsuits are edifying and constructive. So, let's go! What are we waiting for?

Less flippantly, I would try to ameliorate the nation's gun craze, by teaching
would-be revolutionaries how to litigate, how to vent their frustrations with
society by becoming do-it-yourself lawyers, learning to use ideas rather than
firearms to express their anger.

I consider my own litigation fundamentally a constitutional issue. What if
government lawyers were not political appointees, like the attorney general,
underpaid hacks like Mr Kilb, the lawyer for the Board, or enterprising pirates
like Kopelman & Paige for Nantucket? What if lawyers for the government were 
appointed by and responsible to the courts? Such an arrangement would work when
courts are not partisan institutions.