Reagan And Roosevelt

While I have always had respect for the opinions expressed by Michael Barone, as a student of the New Deal era, I must disagree with his conclusions in the article (Editorial Pages, Sept. 21), "Reagan and Roosevelt: Historic Equals in Affection." Without question Ronald Reagan would relish emulating Franklin Roosevelt, and, as Barone points out, he lavishingly dots his rhetoric with Rooseveltian phraseology, he very frequently attempts to equate his failed policies with those of our former giant of a President, but I am sure F.D.R.

The letters (Oct. 2) regarding Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt cannot go unchallenged. In toto, the six letters were the greatest combination of biased hogwash and aspersions I have read for quite a while. The writers apparently don't know history or perhaps they choose to ignore it in their blind glorification of F.D.R. Their vilification of Reagan, however, is despicable. First, a bit of history. As everyone should know, the Great Depression dragged on for years under F.D.R.

"His intellectual processes had always been intuitive rather than logical. He often thought lazily and superficially. But he felt profoundly. His ratiocination annoyed some observers, who, missing the intermediate steps of the syllogism, condemned his oversimplifications and felt that portentous decisions were precariously reared on idiotic anecdotes.

"His intellectual processes had always been intuitive rather than logical. He often thought lazily and superficially. But he felt profoundly. His ratiocination annoyed some observers, who, missing the intermediate steps of the syllogism, condemned his oversimplifications and felt that portentous decisions were precariously reared on idiotic anecdotes.

Politically, it's quite a switch. Mark Hunt, director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, will soon leave for a job at the home of liberalism's patron saint. Hunt will become deputy director and curator of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y., which canonizes a president noted for establishing the modern liberalism Reagan opposed.

Playwright Phil Bosakowski died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at age 48. First mounted in 1984, Bosakowski's surreal comedy-drama "Chopin in Space" now receives a belated West Coast premiere at the Sacred Fools Theater. Full of unabashed jingoism and nationalistic rage, the play is a fascinating sociological document of the Polish people's struggle to maintain their identity under the brutalizing Soviet system. As theater, however, Bosakowski's congealed Cold War trifle has gone off a bit.