The Wrath Of God
East Hampton
August 26, 1998

To The Editor:

The other day on a network news show, Pat Robertson, the founder and guiding force behind the Christian Coalition, proclaimed that the State of Florida was about due for the hand of God to wield its wrath and destroy the state by hurricane. (Prophecy is cheap.) This, because the City of Orlando, in its wickedness, flew rainbow flags during the Gay Pride Day celebration. This activity, Robertson declared, was comparable to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now that the hurricane hit North Carolina, all God "fearing" Christians must ask what collective sins the people of North Carolina have perpetrated to deserve this obvious evidence of God's displeasure.

Could it be because the electorate has repeatedly returned Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate?

Could it be because the Town of Smithfield, N.C., had sported, well into the 1970s, a billboard on the interstate highway depicting a Ku Klux Klansman reared up on his horse proudly proclaiming that Smithfield was the true home of the Klan and proudly fought communism and integration?

Could it be the mass murders of a group of socialist workers marching in Greensboro? They were gunned down by a bunch of neo-Nazis, and like the good old boys, North Carolina couldn't find a jury that would convict the murderers - even though the episode was on videotape.

Could it be because the alleged suspect in the bombing of a women's health clinic strolls around his N.C. home town freely without anyone informing on him, or at least not in time to be captured?

Now, it's more than likely that Pat Robertson doesn't believe that these transgressions rise to the same level of collective sin as flying a rainbow flag. But, after all, lynching African Americans was really just a sideline for the Ku Klux Klan: Historically, their main activity was promoting the very type of Christian values that Mr. Robertson promotes.

So, on balance, maybe his God doesn't think those good old boys down in N.C. are doing enough after all (or maybe, following Lot's example, they should have tried offering up their virgin daughters to some motorcycle gang). This would surely have sent the hurricane at least into Yankee territory.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM R. FRANKLIN

---

It's Arcadia For Some
East Hampton
August 29, 1998

To The Editor,

So somebody is building a huge monstrosity in Sagaponack and the locals are up in arms. If it weren't for this sort of thing, we would have read the police blotter or the obituaries.

Sagaponack has, for some time, been a wasteland of little monstrosities (though not too little), all perfectly individualized and reflecting the individuality and relative wealth of their owners.

Actually, there is a tone of true equality that pervades Sagaponack: Everyone belongs to the same class; no one makes his or her living working in their neighbors' gardens. The rules are clear.

Now, someone comes along and wants to mess things up by raising the stakes. The locals, having been around long enough to qualify as locals (I don't know how long it takes to qualify nowadays; it used to take so, so long) are worried that their once-individualized monstrosities are going to look like shacks next to Rennert's big one - like those shacks, those little beach houses that once existed but were torn down or renovated to create the existing monstrosities. (I liked those little beach houses.)

As for Tinka [Topping]'s arcadian perceptions of Daniel's Lane as a "beautiful, soft, long lane," it hasn't been that way for at least 35 years. Though "soft" does fit in the discussion somewhere.

CHUCK SOLAIS