To the Editor:
[Re: "No Place Like Home," 3/06] No, Melissa Pierson you are not the only one that feels that way. We are pushing the Earth around till it is unrecognizable, physically and culturally. The unseen natural rhythms become distorted or are gone, so we need more and more artificial stimulants in attempt to find connections we do not recognize, physically or culturally.

We want historic tours yet neglect our history. We want wholesome foods yet kick tofu farmers off their lands. We want good neighborhoods, then drive our superhighways through them.

In the name of the "greater good," we took communities of human scale and substituted the Ashokan [Reservoir], "The Big Dig," the World Trade Center, downtowns, etc., etc.

Who determines the "greater good" ? Who has the self-anointed vision to determine it for all the generations that follow?

No one should change the Earth irreparably past this one lifetime. Does every square inch of stone and soil have to be "developed?"  When will the "shakers and movers" of society be satisfied? The message of Schumacher's Small is Beautiful is needed more than ever today.

—Anne Wasserbach, Saugerties

To the Editor:
After reading Jason Stern's Esteemed Reader in [the April 2006 issue of] Chronogram regarding the "war against negativity," I find it appropriate to share with your readers one of Shakespeare's sonnets. I came across it while working on a project called "Rough and Tumble—Shakespeare's Tempers." [The sonnet] involves the mechanicals from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" running about while the moods of Shakespeare appear in his sonnet forms. A very rough idea. Sonnet 129 exemplifies one form of self-hating:

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight,
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad;
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof*, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
(*experience)

—David Aston-Reese, Saugerties
Artistic Director, Bird-On-A-Cliff Theatre Co.

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS In our April issue, we misspelled the name of cover artist Sophia Tarassov, as well as mischaracterizing her exhibition of paintings at the Chocolate Factory in Red Hook. Tarassov's paintings will be shown with sculpture by Matt Weinberger through May 28. A closing reception will be held on Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21 from 5-7 pm. For information, call (845) 758-8080.