A Sunday Afternoon's ruminations...

I am sitting in my cluttered upstairs office listening to John Ottman's beautifully inventive and fresh score for the new film SUPERMAN RETURNS (Saw it yesterday; I'll have a review soon) and thinking about the months to come and the immense amount of work to be done. I have many projects on the horizon and today represents a brief respite from the whirlwind of activity I have found myself in recently.

My wife Jennifer is puttering around her art studio and cleaning up the clutter we so often accumulate. This afternoon, methinks a trip to Diversity Thrift is in order to drop off some stuff. I also will have to find time to mow the lawn or we won't be able to find our two dogs without a search party.

Teaching SPARCLERS with Christina Brookman has been a real joy. We meet with the children (K-4th Grade) Monday through Friday for 3 hours. There are two groups, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We are teaching the students the basics of slapstick comedy and each group will perform for the parents on friday in a sort of vaudevillian variety show complete with knock-knock jokes, funny faces, song & dance, and comedy sketches as well as pantomimed pieces. It should be a blast to see it finally all come together.

Christina is fantastic with the kids. She really knows how to reach them in an inspiring way and never talks 'down' to them. I have learned a lot from watching her interact with them-- She never tries to 'force' them to do what she wants... Rather, she senses what kind of focus they have on a particular day and tailors the activities accordingly. I am constantly amazed at her ability to sort of 'ride the crest'of their energy, be it manic, passive or moderate.

After this week, we will begin session two-- Another SPARCLERS three-week session of classes for two different groups of kids. However, I will only be able to teach two out of the three weeks, as I will be leaving for Massachussetts on July 21st. Rehearsals for the Gloucester Stage Company production of The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath begin on Monday July 24th. I need to do some serious homework beforehand, as the play opens on August 10th and runs until Aug 27th.

Immediately following the GSC run, I will be returning to Richmond on August 28th to jump into a high-octane rehearsal process for the Firehouse Theatre Project's production of I Am My Own Wife under the direction of Morrie Piersol. 'Wife' opens on September 14th and runs until October 7th.

After 'Wife' closes, the Firehouse stages it's own production of The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath, which I will be delighted to be involved with as well. Running November 2-25th, FTP's 'Bonnard' will be directed by my good friend and fantasy baseball adversary Jack Parish. (btw, he's kicking my butt in our Yahoo! League...)

Then in mid february of 2007 I'll pop back out to Lexington, Kentucky to play the title role in Tartuffe at Actor's Guild of Lexington. The run dates for the play, directed by my baseball brother Rick St. Peter, are March 8th-April 1st, 2007.

In the meantime, you can still catch me onstage with the gang in The Taming of the Shrew at The Richmond Shakespeare Festival at historic Agecroft Hall. We run for another week, closing on July 9th. It has been a blast to work with my good friends Foster Solomon and Susan Sanford again. They simply breathe new and joyous life into Kate and Petruchio, and they are giving a gift to the audience nightly. My only criticism is that more often than not, they won't come out for another bow at curtain call time!! They have really earned it, and in my humble opinion, they're being too modest. So if you come and like what you see, let them know you want an encore....

Well, that's all for now-- I'll post my thoughts on SUPERMAN RETURNS very soon. In the meantime, stay away from those July 4th M-80 firecrackers, people...

Christopher Reeve, The Man of Steel.

I'm going to see SUPERMAN RETURNS very soon, and as sort of a homage to a man who helped to shape my worldview, I have posted the transcript of a rare iterview with Christopher Reeve from 1996. This piece is very special, because my heroes are on both sides of the conversation: Reeve, speaking about the challenges he faced after his accident, is speaking to Ralph Hammann, a Berkshire-area film & theatre critic who just happens to be my high-school theatre teacher and mentor. If only I could have been a fly on the wall....


Remembering Christopher Reeve
By Ralph Hammann - December 30, 2004

Editor’s note: Christopher Reeve, the noted Hollywood actor whose ties to the Berkshire community spanned 36 years, starting when he was an apprentice in at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 1968, died on Oct. 10, 2004, after complications from an infection. He had been paralyzed from the neck down after falling off his horse during a jump in a Culpepper, Va., competition in the spring of 1995.

He was remembered by friends and colleagues as the man who played Superman in the movies, but also as a true-life superhero who used his celebrity to improve the lot of others and a dedicated advocate for research into spinal cord injuries. As a remembrance of Mr. Reeve, we print this story by Ralph Hammann from 1996, the first local interview granted by the actor after his tragic accident.

WILLIAMSTOWN — Visitors to Christopher Reeve should not expect to find the actor and part-time Williamstown resident sitting about inactively or waiting like one of Samuel Beckett’s characters. Reeve may be confined to a wheelchair, but the essential part of him is enormously vital. He may currently be paralyzed from below his shoulders, but currently seems the operative word. Everything about his demeanor suggests that this is a temporary state, a new challenge for the activist who has always brought his energy and conviction to effect positive changes.

“I don’t feel trapped. I don’t feel stuck at all,” Reeve says, after acknowledging his admiration of Beckett, the poet-dramatist of souls that are sometimes trapped in particular physical existences. “What I do feel is that, first of all, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity. I mean two weeks ago, I went out on a 12-meter sailboat in a race off Newport at 30 knots of wind with my wheelchair lashed down in the cockpit.”

In the only regatta that wasn’t called off due to winds from Hurricane Bertha, Reeve sailed through rain squalls to benefit Shake-A-Leg, a handicapped sailing program.

“Even though I wasn’t steering the boat, which I usually would have been doing, I had the same enjoyment of being on the water. There’s a lot I can do even in the condition that I’m in. But I do see a way out of it, and it’s not a pipe dream. So I don’t indulge in feelings of being trapped or stuck. It’s a waste of time and energy to think that way, anyway.”

A couple of hours spent with him in his Williamstown home, an airy haven in a pastoral setting, prove him to be a man whose actions confirm his words. He has more irons in the fire than many in his condition would or could dream of keeping hot.

This is apparent from the beginning of the interview, as Reeve forewarns that we might be interrupted by a casting phone call he’s awaiting from an actor, about to leave the country. Reeve must make an offer to the actor, whom he is considering for a role in the film, “In the Gloaming” which he is directing for

HBO Showcase Performances. Reeve good-humoredly notes that the role is that of a father, which he would have played. The series of hour dramas, which will originate in New York, has impressed Reeve for the meticulousness with which it is being mounted.

“Basically it is a story about reconciliation,” he says of the drama by Will Scheffer that he’ll begin filming in September. “It is about a very affluent family out in the suburbs, in Westchester, and how they are brought together by the final visit home of their son from whom they’ve been estranged for the last four years. He comes home to die … He’s got AIDS, but it could have been a tumor or leukemia. But he’s reached a place of serenity and acceptance, and through his wisdom they reconcile. It’s a very moving script, and I’m really honored that they’ve entrusted me to direct it.”

Reeve’s humor radiates through him like the gentle afternoon sun on his garden, which is carefully groomed by his very good friend and neighbor, Bill Stinson.

“The house we picked [for filming] is about 10 minutes from my house in Bedford [N.Y.], so it’ll be a short commute to work every morning” he smiles.

The importance of work to him, and Reeve’s own fastidiousness, comes across as he describes his pre-production work on the film that will star Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Helen Hunt and Robert Sean Leonard.

“The other day, I spent the entire day in meetings about picking colors of wallpapers for the house, talking to cinematographers about what filters we’re going to use at sunset, talking to actors about how I see their roles, deciding on which direction we want the furniture on the patio to face — I love all of the decision-making, working with the writer on the script, having responsibility for the final product, working with so many talented people and helping to facilitate what they do and answering their questions.”

This is Reeve’s first trip back to Williamstown and the WTF since the accident. He is here with his wife, Dana, their son, Will, and his children by an earlier marriage, Matthew and Alexandra. Reeve, whose last stage appearance at the festival was in the 1992 production of “The Guardsman,” says he is delighted that he has been allowed to remain a member of the family by being a member of the board of trustees, which will involve him in policy-making at the theater.

“We still feel very connected to Williamstown, not only the theater, but the whole community. There are a lot of friends here. It’s been part of our lives for a long time now, and Dana and I were very gratified by the reception not only from the WTF family but from the whole community. I am just thrilled to come back, because I haven’t been here since late in 1994 [when they were here for Thanksgiving].”

He expects his stays in Williamstown will now return to normal.

Stinson, who has enlisted Reeve’s older son to help with weeding, has just given Reeve the first cheery tomato from his garden.

“Dana and I went to dinner in town the other night. She ordered a salad as an appetizer, and the lettuce was right from our garden!” Reeve says.

Stinson, a leading supplier to area restaurants and markets, uses the Reeve’s garden as well as his own.

Reeve says that when he and his wife talked about the future, their first decision was to make their Williamstown house accessible.

“We decided upon that immediately. We never talked for a moment about selling. A rumor got started somewhere that we going to sell the house, but we never even thought about it … the house is very special, many memories. So to come back was wonderful, because we felt as though we never left.”

Reeve says the Adams Memorial Theater is very accessible, as are many restaurants in town.

“Getting around is very easy. I have a fellow who goes ahead of us wherever we go and works these things out.”

That is Neil Stutzer, of the company Access U.S.A., who reported to Reeve that the equipment (various sized ramps, metal plates to help them over doorways) they carry in Reeve’s van could be accommodated virtually everywhere he wanted to go.

“You see, pursuant to the American Disabilities Act, places should be accessible to the handicapped,” Reeve says. “Many aren’t up the code yet, so we bring things with us.”

He is also able to get around to a good degree on his own by blowing air into a device that reads his signals and propels his sophisticated wheelchair. As for physical therapy, he has moved all of his equipment from his home in Bedford to Williamstown. A minimum of two to three hours a day is spent doing therapy. Medically, he is very stable.

Besides Stutzer, Reeve is assisted by a rotating group of aides who help with the heavy lifting and help the nurses on a daily basis. One nurse is always present from the staff, which is rotated every 12 hours. There is also Reeve’s cordial and efficient personal assistant, Michael Manganiello. And if Reeve has an impulse to go somewhere, another aide is on call to help with the logistics. Some come from Bedford; others were hired locally.

Asked about the adjustment necessary to live with all these other people at his side, Reeve says that they become something of an extended family.

“People who are able to blend in with our family are very important, because you do spend a lot of time together, and you want to have a good feeling about them. They become much more than employees and people who you rely on. They are more than just nursing or accessibility. They become a very important part of your life in many ways.”

Reeve allows that arbitrariness of existence can’t really be reconciled.

“It’s just a freak moment. As I came off the horse, I happened to hit my head on the rail, and that’s what did all the damage … if I had missed the rail by about 3 or 4 inches, nothing would have happened.”

Rather than overdo the personal aspect of his injury, as has been seen on Barbara Walters and the Today Show, he would rather talk about his faith in neurological research, in which he says he is very involved now.

“There’s a big piece coming up in Time Magazine in the next couple of weeks. Newsweek did a wonderful article. That was really good because it explained to the average person what’s going on. It made it clear what the problem is and also what the hope is.”

He feels strongly that it will be before the next decade that a cure will be found for his problem.

“The approach that I have the most hope for is based on recent achievements in Stockholm, where they transected the spinal cords of rats and then grafted on nerves from the peripheral nervous system and cemented them in with fibrin, which is a sort of glue that the body produces. And the rats walked. They didn’t just drag their legs behind them, they walked. Now if that could work in humans, it would be an incredible breakthrough.”

The work appears in the current Science journal and was reported on July 26 in The New York Times.

“Dr. Wise Young of N.Y.U., who is a real skeptic, was the one who reviewed this work from Stockholm for acceptance by Science magazine,” Reeve says. “He and I correspond all the time, and what I understand from him is that this may be the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for.”

Reeve also finds cause for optimism in the work of Dr. Martin Schwab in Switzerland, who discovered a protein inhibitor that keeps the central nervous system from regenerating. Now that it’s been identified, Reeve says it can probably be knocked out.

“These are things that a few years ago would have been impossible. Now they offer real hope.”

Reeve persuaded President Clinton to devote $10 million to spinal cord research.

“I think that people realize now that the spinal cord can regenerate, and that the research money is not just for the spinal cord but benefits every condition of the brain or central nervous system, which are really the last frontier of medicine,” he says.

The benefits, he notes, apply to people suffering from MS, Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig’s disease, paralysis or stroke and also to work being done on brain imaging (a new way of studying how the brain works).

“There is only one degree of separation between any of us and somebody who suffers from a disorder of the brain or central nervous system ,” he says. “You can go up to anyone on the street and say, ‘Do you know anyone with Parkinson’s or MS or Alzheimer’s or even a spinal cord problem?’ Without fail, there will be somebody they’ll know. It’s an aspect of the graying of America. It’s costing us a tremendous amount of money just to maintain these people. Now it’s time to cure them. So whatever I can do to push that along, I’m going do.”

Reeve notes that research money has been withheld in the past because of the fear that it wouldn’t do any good, but he is now heartened that the president and many people in Congress have been won over to the new hope.

“Even an incremental improvement will help,” he explains. “For example, if you are able to get someone the use of an arm, then they can drive a car and go back to work, and then they are off the rolls of Medicaid. So instead of going on slashing programs, reducing hospitals, cutting back on all kinds of care facilities, a better way to approach it is to put our best brains on curing these diseases: Take a proactive view of it, and reduce the cost of Medicaid.”

When asked how the meaning of fear has changed for him, Reeve simply states that he doesn’t really live with fear. Sure, there were the inevitable moments of fear when he was in intensive care and couldn’t breathe at all, but he says that someone always got to him and that it didn’t take long to move out of fear and into recovery.

“I’m not in any pain, and I don’t really have much to be scared about — I haven’t for quite awhile. I have a very, very good support system and a lot to be hopeful for, so I don’t really suffer.

“I take both a short view and a long view,” he adds. “I think that a lot can be accomplished if the public support is there. I compare my situation to Kennedy’s call for a moon landing by 1960: People thought that he was irresponsible and that that would be impossible. Well, I just don’t buy into that. People may have to work a little harder, but I really think we’re on the threshold of new discoveries that will make this time in the chair temporary … if you look at the space program, it took a president, it took public support, it took money and it took good science. With that, they conquered the frontier of space. In a similar way, we can conquer the last frontier of medicine. There is not only a

humanitarian, but also an economic incentive to do that now.”

Reeve, of course is no stranger to using his celebrity and intelligence to champion important causes. Whether it was helping to save Images Cinema in Williamstown or flying to Chile to speak on behalf Chilean actors whose lives were in danger, he can count as many successes on cultural or humanitarian issues as he has had successes on stage and in film. He’ll spend a weekend in August as the master of ceremonies for the opening of the Paraolympics in Atlanta.

He has been continuing environmental work, and was just given the Partners Award by the American Oceans Campaign. He also works with the Creative Coalition.

“We spent most of the last year trying to bring the upstate and downstate interests in New York to work together to protect the New York City watershed area. We managed to get the Legislature to approve a billion dollars toward that end to buy land around the watershed and to help rebuild the aqueducts into the city … also, we worked hard with Concerned Citizens for the Environment and the Sierra Club to defeat Interpower of New York. It would have been a huge coal-burning co-generating plant, and their emissions of sulfur, carbon dioxide and 82 other pollutants would have landed right here in the Berkshires and Southern Vermont.”

That was a five-year, David-and-Goliath struggle that resulted in the federal Environmental Protection Agency withdrawing a permit they had given to the company.

“I’m working mostly now on insurance reform and on raising insurance caps from a million dollars to $10 million,” Reeve said.

Will that be in time to help him?

“Possibly, but it’s not really for me. I’ll be all right. It’s more for the patients down the hall; it’s for people who don’t have the resources.”

Reeve says a number of ideas have been put forward regarding acting roles (including one by a producer who would like to remake “Rear Window”), but the one he accepted is one that allows him to impact and perhaps help change public awareness. He’ll play a small part, that of a quadriplegic outpatient, in a television film that is currently called “Snakes and Ladders.” The film, which was written since Reeve’s accident, is about a family that runs out of insurance when boy is injured and becomes a quadriplegic.

“Hopefully, it will get a big audience on TV. I’m just pleased that someone is making a film about a real-life topic. You know, a lot of these TV movies tend to be about terrorized wives or the disease of the week, but I think this will be an interesting film.”

He sees a dearth of films that offer truthful or valuable portrayals of persons with physical handicaps and says the most important was “Coming Home” (in which Jon Voight plays a Vietnam war vet). Reeve also feels that Gary Sinise’s character in “Forrest Gump” realistically captures the emotions that some people feel about their disability. He says the bitterness of that character seems very accurate and admires “the moment that you see him standing at the wedding, standing on artificial legs but obviously moving forward in his life.”

Reeve, himself, has played a bilateral amputee on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July.” Unfortunately, Reeve notes, most roles depict persons with similar disabilities as either being pathetic victims or villains.

“One script that I was just offered was a quadriplegic who turned out to be the bad guy. I didn’t think that was a good idea.”

As a director, he had experience at Cornell and says he directed parts of the “Superman” movies and parts of another film he starred in called “The Aviator.”

He says directing comes pretty naturally to him.

“Fred Zollo (one of the producers of “In the Gloaming,” “Quiz Show” and “Mississippi Burning”) said, ‘You should have been doing this years ago. It’s too bad that it’s taken an injury to force you into doing something that you should have been doing all along.’”

He thinks part of his strength as a director comes from having been an actor for so long.

“Also I’m naturally bossy, and now I can put it to legitimate use,” he jokes.

Manganiello, who is unobtrusively working at Reeve’s computer, good-naturedly concurs.

“No, but I have a lot of opinions about how things should go, and as an actor I’ve had to restrain myself many times,” Reeves says. “And no, again, I don’t see it as ordering people around. It’s facilitating the work of other talented people. But I’m more than willing to make decisions — I like taking responsibility for a project, which is not something that you’re supposed to do as an actor.”

WTF Producer Michael Ritchie invited Reeve to direct for the WTF this year, but Reeve didn’t come up with a play soon enough.

“Michael, much to my surprise, set the season very early. In the old days, Nikos [Psacharopoulos, the founding WTF director] sometimes picked the August plays in July. But I think the way Michael has gone about it is wonderful. I missed this year, but maybe next season. I’m very grateful that I have an open invitation.”

He’s not sure what he’d like to direct yet.

“It will hit me someday. There is nothing burning right now. I think you should only direct something when you have a passion for it.”

He says he felt that passion in the WTF’s recent “All My Sons,” which he found “heart wrenching.” He thought that both it and “The Ride Down Mount Morgan” were impeccable productions that marked quite an achievement for the theater.

As a WTF board member, Reeve has considered the problem of keeping the theater vital in the coming decade.

“It’s important to remember that this is a theater festival, not a summer stock company, and that means that it has to be bold, and it has to take risks and that it has to challenge its audience. I think Michael Ritchie has done a tremendous job, even in his first year, of taking on that assignment ... I think when you can take a play like “All My Sons” — I’ve seen productions of it that play as very melodramatic family drama — and with a brilliant director and brilliant cast, you really rediscover the play. That’s what’s got to happen so that the classics are really rediscovered.”

He also thinks that the Main Stage should be used for new works, and that the festival needs to bring a younger and more diverse audience into the theater.

“We need people to come from North Adams and Pittsfield, not just the well-to-do tourists on their way through. It needs to be a theater that really speaks to the community, meaning the whole area — Albany and into Vermont, the smaller communities around the Berkshires. If they get word that exciting things are happening on the stage, then they’ll come. If our best work could transfer to New York, that would be a good thing, too. But I think that this festival ought to remember its tradition and its heritage, which is one of rediscovery.”

Reeve feels that Ritchie’s extensive work in New York has given him access to many innovative artists.

“He’s a young guy, and he’s got new ideas. I hope he is given a permanent home here.”

Reeve has also taken on another major project, a book he is writing about his life with Roger Rosenblatt (author of “Our Children of War). So far they have 1,500 pages of transcript, for the book that Random House plans to publish sometime in 1998.

When I ask how he works with a collaborator, he jokes, “Very well: I talk and he listens. And then he writes and I make corrections. No, it’s where he helps to focus and shape the thoughts that I have. Then he comes back to me, and I will fine tune what he does. I may talk and he’ll say, ‘No let’s go further with that or let’s go in a different direction.’ Some of the other publishers wanted the book in early 1997 or even this year. I said, ‘But I don’t know anything. I need more time to discover, to gain perspective on what’s happened — and on what’s going to happen. We hope that by 1998 to write a very uplifting final chapter … it’s going to have to deal with transformation really … it will be very draining to do but very rewarding.”

When he walks again, will he carry on exactly as he has before?

“It will depend upon how strong a recovery it is, but other than that — hopefully, I’ll regain full use of my whole body, in which case I don’t see any limits, although I promised my wife that I won’t compete in cross-country anymore. We already sold the saddle. But I can certainly see doing dressage or equitation. I’d love to ski again, downhill, I miss skiing a lot.”

Reeve skied all his life and taught his kids to ski.

He praises his wife’s work in what he describes as a stunning revival of “Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

“I don’t know what she’s going to do for the fall yet,” he says. “We worked it out that her job is being an actress. Someone once said, ‘Never turn your wife into your nurse or your mother.’ And I’m very lucky that we can have nurses who do that sort of maintenance for us. But it is very important to a marriage to not let that role change. So Dana is my wife; I’m her husband — those are our roles — and parents. But you don’t want it to deteriorate into — I mean, it’s not her job in life to take care of me, although she does take wonderful care of me. It is important that she maintain her own identity and her own freedom to do the sort of work that she wants to do.

“If she gets a job that shoots in Russia, I’d miss her like crazy, but I wouldn’t hold her back.”

Although Reeve has often shunned the association with heroic roles that he has played, he has now become a real-life hero to many people. Asked to comment on that, he unsurprisingly says, “I don’t really think in those terms.” Then he reflects, smiles and says, “I’ll sort of leave that analysis to other people.”

It’s an easy analysis.

Ralph Hamman is The Advocate’s chief theater critic.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!

My dad is the best. His name is Ted Wichmann. He is a perfect gentleman. He is a man of faith and kindness. He's friendly and intelligent, thrifty and dilligent, a master craftsman and an all-around great guy. Dad, I hope you have a great day today. I love you & I miss you very much. The picture above is just a reminder of how you've kept me 'on the right track' all these years!!!

I opened 'The Taming of the Shrew' at Agecroft Hall last night-- Tonight's performance is for you, dad.

With much Love & admiration,

Your son,

Scott

My letter to Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA)

To the Honorable Robert Scott,

My name is Scott Wichmann. I am a thirty-two year old married man living in the North Side of Richmond, in the Barton Heights section of town. I love my neighborhood. I love my job-- I am an actor-- and I love my country very much.

I feel blessed to have been born in a country where I have a voice, and the right to speak out against injustice. I am writing to you today because I am troubled by the direction our country is headed. I am deeply disturbed by the actions of the current administration in particular. In the wake of 9/11, The current Administration used outright lies as a pretext to Invade another nation, causing the death and maiming of hundreds upon thousands of Iraqi civilians and US Troops. To date there has been no action taken against them by Congress for propagating the lies that, to this very moment, continue to cause the death of innocents in that country.

The Bush Administration manufactured threats and used deceptive propaganda to mislead the nation to falling in line behind them. They led us to war based on lies. To date, they have racked up the biggest deficit in the history of our nation, while cutting taxes for the rich, destroying environmental protections restrictive to big business, and rendering vital services such as FEMA impotent due to poor funding and cronyism.

They have shredded our Fourth Amendment rights by engaging in illegal wiretapping of US Citizens, laughed off the provisions of the Geneva convention (making torture the new 'American Way'), and, according to an article by Robert F Kennedy, Jr in this month's Rolling Stone Magazine, they were even a party to the outright thievery of the 2004 Presidential Election in Ohio.

Thanks to the powers granted him by the Patriot Act, President Bush now has sole authority to determine who is a terrorist. The CIA and NSA have infiltrated and spied on peace activist groups such as the Quakers, and placed them on super-secret 'terror watch lists.'Dissent is denounced as 'Un-Patriotic.' CIA Rendition flights to Europe are the new norm. The FBI is monitoring libraries.

I ask you, Congressman Scott, WHAT IS GOING ON??

Every day another piece of the Constitution is shredded, as the executive branch grows more and more powerful. Congress has failed utterly in it's duty to provide oversight and accountability on behalf of the citizens of this country and then has the unmitigated gall to vote it's members a $2,300 pay raise on tuesday july 13th?? A pay raise?? For WHAT??

A more cynical man might ask, "remind me again, What do we need Congress FOR??"

I don't have children yet, but when I do, I want to let them know that when the dictatorship began, I didn't stay silent. I spoke up. It is your duty to do the same, Congressman Scott. I wrote to you today because you are a man of principle, and because this Administration must be held accountable for it's actions.

Right now I speak for many when I say that our confidence in members of Congress is at an all-time LOW. The corruption and corporate lobbyist culture of our congressional institution excludes the concerns of the average citizen. I and many of my friends feel we now have no one to speak for us. We wish to sue for peace, but all we hear from the halls of our elected representatives are either the republican call for more war, or the hemming and hawing of centrist democrats who are too fearful of the p.r. backlash that comes with challenging the ideology of violence.

There can be no peace without Justice, and Justice cannot appear without the light of TRUTH. If you choose to take action against this nest of corruption, The truth will be on your side. Speak out on it's behalf.

America is the greatest idea ever envisioned. A rebublic of, by and for the people. It is larger in possibility than George W Bush and his fear-based initiatives would ever have us believe. It's HEART is larger-- It's scope and possibility almost limitless; It's capacity for compassion and creativity simply waiting to be mined. We as a people need to find constructive rather than destructive ways to solve our problems. We need to live our lives consistent with the values our country professes to embody. And we need not ever be afraid to challenge injustice or call it by it's name.

That is why I strongly urge you to introduce legislation or support such legislation relating to the Impeachment of President George W Bush, and to work for the restoration of our lost civil liberties by repealing the Patriot Act. I also urge you to to take action in Congress to call for an immediate withdrawal of all US Military Personnell from Iraq.

I thank you for your attention to this correspondence. I am very proud to be one of your constituents, and I believe very strongly in your platform of social justice, fairness and equality for all people everywhere.

Sincerely,

Scott Wichmann

Scottwichmann@aol.com

It's gonna be a fun summer!!

Here's an excerpt from an item in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about my forthcoming involvement with the outstanding new play by Israel Horowitz. I'm very honored and excited to work with him this summer. I know I will learn a lot and have fun working with some really great people.

Check out the item below:

ON THE AISLE
By Cynthia McMullen
Jun 11, 2006

Richmond actor Scott Wichmann will perform in the world premiere of The Secret of Mme. Bonnard's Bath at Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts.

Playwright Israel Horovitz, who tendered the invitation to Wichmann, is founder and artistic director of Gloucester Stage Company. He was in the house -- the Firehouse Theatre, to be exact in early March when Wichmann was among the Richmond cast for a staged reading of the playwright's new script.

"Scott was remarkable," says Horovitz via e-mail. "He's able to create instant characters, be funny and real at the same time perfect for a play like The Secret of Mme. Bonnard's Bath when an actor's called upon to play several different roles, often switching roles at the drop (or donning) of a hat.

"Scott's a genuine character actor. I think he's going to have a significant career."

The world premiere of "Mme. Bonnard" will run Aug. 10-27. Wichmann will be joined by Harold Dixon, whom Horovitz knows from Invisible Theatre in Tucson, Ariz., and New York actress Stephanie Janssen."It's an extremely exciting cast," says Horovitz.The play also will open in Richmond Nov. 2 under the Firehouse Theatre Project banner and will run through Nov. 25. (Auditions take place from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Firehouse.)

Peace on Earth

Ooh Superman where are you now?
When everything's gone wrong somehow
The men of steel, the men of power
Are losing control by the hour.

This is the time,
This is the place,
So we look to the future
But there's not much love to go 'round.

Tell me why this is a land of confusion...

I recently read the novelization for the new film Superman Returns by comic book legend Marv Wolfman, and I absolutely loved it. I have been thinking quite a bit about what the character represents to us as Americans. We live in such morally ambiguous times. War is used as a primary option, threats and fear cloud our judgement, and violence begets violence, which everyone seems okay with.

It is no wonder then, that the comic book heroes we admire most are 'Take-no-prisoners' revenge-driven nutjobs like Wolverine, The Punisher, and Batman. These guys use Razor sharp claws, automatic weapons or simply their fists to settle things. Their causes are just because they say so. They shoot first, ask questions later-- Perfect spokespeople for the world we live in today. Their kind of 'instant retribution' crusades make us feel good about our own violent impulses, and they underscore the primal satisfaction of exacting instant justice. To be sure, I love these characters too-- I really enjoy the X-Men, and Batman is one of my all-time favorite heroes. In the hands of some great writers, the characters help illuminate different parts of ourselves, and recent movie treatments of all three have proved highly entertaining.

(X3 rocked, Jennie & I saw it on saturday. Batman Begins was just great. That having been said, though, 'the Punisher' has always been my least favorite comic book character. A guy with a gun & a grudge does not a hero make-- at least in my book.)

Yet not many people these days seem to dig Superman. He is regarded as 'old-fashioned,' 'naive,' and some folks think he's just plain boring. He doesn't wear a mask. He has no psychotic revenge-drama to fuel him. Instead, he's a "strange visitor from another planet" trying to find a way to utilize his abilities for the greater good while simultaneously looking for his own place in the world. In many ways, his dilemma is closer to that of my other favorite super-hero, Spider-Man, whose mantra is "With great power comes great responsibility."

My personal favorite Superman story is an Alex Ross/Paul Dini oversized prestige format one-shot called Peace on Earth which my Uncle Bob bought me for Christmas in 1998. Peace on Earth centers on the man of steel as he undertakes a personal mission to try and reach starving people in every corner of the globe in an attempt to alleviate world hunger for at least one day.

In the story, Superman takes all of the surplus grain he can carry and attempts to deliver it to the starving nations of the world. Along the way he encounters agressive dictators (North Korea), moblike crowds of starving people (Sudan), war-weary victims of the eastern european genocides (Kosovo) and the scorn and mistrust of politicians and media worldwide.

It is the hardest task he has ever tried to accomplish, and the resistance he encounters, mixed with the world's collective apathy towards human life, causes him to question himself and his mission. He admits to himself that even he wouldn't be able to reach the same people every single day... He would never be able to live his
own life and meet his other responsibilities. At the end of his quixotic crusade, Superman returns to his home feeling defeated and emotionally exhausted, and he wonders whether or not his Herculean effort has made any difference at all.

during a sleepless night of soul-searching, Superman remembers the time his adoptive father, Johnathan Kent, showed him how to scatter seeds in the fields when he was a boy on the farm in Smallville, Kansas. Pa Kent says, "As far back as we go, we've always had problems with sharing. Seem's everyone's so busy holding on to what they've got to care about how their neighbors are doing." Superman takes some measure of solace in his ability to educate others to share and give freely. He reasons that it is ultimately humanity's responsibility to solve it's own problems-- he can only do the best he can to help that effort. He cannot shoulder the burden all by himself, but he can educate people and let his compassion and selflessness create an example which people will hopefull want to emulate.

The final tableau of the story is of Clark Kent showing a high-school agriculture class how to scatter seeds on the Kent family farm, where he imparts his father's wisdom to the young students, planting a seed of compassion within them... No Superhuman abilities required.

Peace on Earth is a warm and compassionate story that illustrates the best of what the character embodies: Truth, Justice, and 'The American Way'(A cringe-worthy phrase when uttered nowadays, one which could cause people to believe that Superman endorses Torture, Rendition, Governmental Spying, Rigged Elections and the death of Political Dissent. That's a joke... sort of.)

'The American Way' part of his mantra is supposed to mean 'freedom, dignity & equality for all people everywhere.' Superman gets that, and it is this simple philosophy that is the core of his strength.

In the 1978 film Superman, Marlon Brando's Jor-El says to his son (Played brilliantly by the real Superman, Christopher Reeve):

"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be.. They only lack the light to show the way."

We don't "lack the light." It is within all of us. The purpose of this character called 'Superman' is to inspire us to look for that light within ourselves, and nurture it-- so that one day, perhaps there will really be Peace on Earth.

My Grandfather Saved My Life.

Tomorrow would have been my Grandfather's 83rd birthday.

Ben Bates passed away on tuesday, May 29th, 2001-- five years ago monday. I have always been struck by the fact that he died the day after his birthday, and so close to memorial day. He was a Marine, and a veteran of both WWII and Korea. I often wonder what he would think about the world today and the direction of the country. Chances are, he and I would get into some loud debates about the how the United States should face the future.

He was very much a student of the 'My Country, Right or Wrong' school of thought, and I do remember us having several heated discussions about wars and service to one's country. He once said to me, "When your country calls, you GO." I said that I felt that a man had to follow the call of his conscience, not of his elected leaders.

Well, one can imagine how that sentiment went over with him. He yelled so loudly in my face that it changed my hairstyle.

But he was funny. An passionate. And verbose. And intolerant. And Imperfect. Most of all, he was uniquely himself.

I really miss him. He was a hardscrabble guy, a red-blooded 'meat & potatoes' American who would probably flip if he found that I've been a vegetarian for almost three years and I've taken up meditation and a deep interest in Buddhism. I can just see him now, rolling his eyes and letting out a protracted "Jeeeeeeeesus CHRIST."

On the other hand, I have to say that he probably saved my life, and, in a way he is responsible for my evolving sense of what it means to be a part of the world.

You see, for many years, I was hiding what I felt was a shameful secret-- I suffer from the disease of alcoholism. I felt like I was hiding a 'double life,' and the weight of it seemed to drag me down to the point where it threatened my marriage and would have, eventually, wrecked my career. Luckily it never got to that point.

Many alcoholics have what is called a 'Moment of Clarity' where everything becomes crystallized for them, and the problem and solution become apparent in an instant. I experienced the same thing, only it was in a dream.

And the vessel carrying the message of change was none other than Ben Bates, right in my face, yelling at me to change my life.

About a year after he had passed away, I saw him in my sleep. I don't remember anything about the dream, other than in the grey fog of another fitful, booze-induced coma, my Grandfather's voice cut through the confusion and his words hit me like a hammer as clearly as if he was right next to me: "SCOTT, STOP DRINKING."

Of course, it took me awhile to do that, but I can pinpoint the birth of my ablity to deal with my own personal reality from that night. And whether it was actually him calling me from 'the other side' or a combination of memories of him mixed with my own subconcious desire to put down the bottle, I'll never know.

However I am sure of this: He loved me very much. And I can still feel it.

Yesterday I was going through some shoeboxes filled with rememberances and souvenirs from shows, etc, and I came across the leaflet which St. Stephens Parish handed out at his funeral in Pittsfield, Mass. Tucked neatly inside was a copy of his obituary in the Berkshire Eagle, and a copy of the eulogy I wrote for him. I'd like to share it with you now.


Eulogy For Bejamin F. Bates,
by Scott Wichmann, Grandson
11am Friday, June 1st, 2001
St. Stephen's Parish
Pittsfield, Massachussetts

"My Grandfather was a very special man to me. He was my idol, my role model, and my friend. I think Ben Bates is one of the great success stories of our time. He may not have ever been given national recognition, but that is beside the point.

Look around the room. He made us all possible.

He won a bet with a Marine buddy in Washington in the late 1940's. He bet his pal that he could get a date with a certain Virginia girl who was sitting on a park bench. Needless to say, he won the bet, and here we all are. And how lucky we are to have been the recipients of his unique brand of love. He showed he cared in crazy ways. I would spend the weekend with him, and he would wake me up at 5:30 am and say gruffly "Whaddya want for dinner?? I'm goin' to the grocery store!!"

It may have been early, but he was busy thinking ahead to when I'd be hungry. He cut all of our wants & needs 'off at the pass.'

He took care of all of us, babysat us or babysat for us, and had a delightful time doing so, even as he hid his delight from us behind a killer poker face. Benny was the last of a dying breed, the man that handles his business, bringing up his family in a changing world, while holding fast to the principles of hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

How many times was he there when we needed him? I got really sick in 1994 and I remember him bringing me the Boston Globe and the Herald every day because he knew I loved the Celtics. He bought me the STAR WARS TRILOGY on video and watched all three movies in a row, rolling his eyes the whole way through while I repeated every line.
Birthdays, weddings, graduations, births, moving days-- He was there for everything, showing a dedication to his family that is sometimes lost on the modern american male.

I can't remember when he wasn't there. Along with Grammy, he was the other pillar holding up my life, and even after his own body began to betray him, he still remained a fervent family man, keeping track of his kids and seeing to their needs.

Towards the end, his physical capabilities began to diminish. He lost weight. He became delusional, frightened, and angry. We may miss him, but I like to think of him as free from all that now.

I think that on tuesday morning, May the 29th, 2001, Ben Bates awoke to the sound of birds outside his window. He softly found that he had the use of his legs. He could move his arms. He looked up in the cold grey dampness of a Berkshire morning and saw a light...

And in that light was my Grandmother. A beautiful vision standing there with arms outstretched, saying gently "Benny, it's time to come home."

And they walked together into the light, and all the fear, anger, and hurt disappeared. No more arguments about things that don't matter. No more miscommunication. Just love, pure and simple.

I'm certain that he is in a better place, one that is free from worry and hurt, and he's in his cosmic tree-stand, keeping a silent (maybe not so silent) & loving eye on us all.

I've learned a lesson from being Ben Bates' Grandson: Family Comes First. Nothing was more important to him-- He is an inspiration to me as I will set forth to start my own family very soon. I will take what he taught me and use it wisely. and so will you, I know. Look around the room. Ben Bates is alive and well in all of us, everyday.

I Love You, Grampy."

My Friendly Correspondence With Verizon.

Dear Verizon,

This email is to let you know that I am disgusted by your four-plus-year-old practice of handing over the private calling records of your customers to the Bush Administration and The National Security Agency in flagrant violation of the 1979 Foreign Intelligence Services Act.

As an American Company, you should be ashamed of yourselves-- The one thing that makes us different in this country is our freedom to express ourselves without the government casting a glance at our calling, reading, assembling or purchasing habits. In case you had forgotten that inconvenient little fact, allow me to furnish you with a small reminder:

Amendment IV, US Constitution:

'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'

Thanks so much, Verizon, for volunteering to violate the Fourth Amendment Rights of myself and all my fellow Americans. You should be very proud of yourselves.

I am currently a Verizon customer. My home phone service is handled by your company, as well as my high-speed DSL service. As far as I'm concerned, any contract we had together is nullified by your criminal practices.

I will be switching service providers effective immediately.

I sincerely hope your company suffers the backlash it deserves.

God Bless America,

Scott Wichmann

A Peace Worth Working For.

I write a lot. Especially when I feel passionate about something.

I was recently looking through my email 'saved' folder, checking out which emails I have kept over the last few years, and a few of them sparked my interest from february of '04.
The War in Iraq was almost a full year old, and I was talking to a friend via email about how we personally addresss the violence of the world. Her mom survived the holocaust, and 'Mom' took issue with my statements about the way of Non-Violence as a lifelong practice.

I said that it was important to listen to 'the enemy' with a compassionate and open mind.

Here's what she wrote back-- my response is below:

> don't want to get into this, but playing devil's advocate.(i'm turning into > a real hawk lol) > Scott, you leave out greed and need to control and power seeking. > in any case, violence may beget violence, but "first you gotta attract the > guy's attention" before you can listen with compassion, or you won't be > around to listen with or without compassion. > jj

Hey JJ--

Mom raises an interesting point. I sat there thinking about that one for awhile. The most honest and jaw-dropping, almost inconcieveable way to 'Get the guy's attention' is to love him.

I know, I know. I'm thinking it, too... Naive. Incredibly impractical. Delusional. Crazy. No way.

Impossible.

...but that's the BEST way. Notice how I didn't say 'The easiest,' the 'quickest'-- We all saw what kind of attention 9/11 got. What kind of attention 'Shock & Awe' got. What kind of attention Palestinian Suicide Bombings and Israeli Airstrikes get.

The BEST way is to love your enemy-- for then he ceases to be your enemy!!! Christ, Buddha, Gandhi, MLK-- They put this idea into practice... And if I'm not mistaken, all four of those guys got some things accomplished, no?? They were flesh & blood human beings!!!! Just like you & me!!!

The BEST way to create peace is to love your enemy. And-- Not to simply to pay lip-service to this idea of Love, but to really, truly, deeply see in your heart of hearts, that you and he are inextricably woven into the same tapestry.

This is not easy.

I sure as heck couldn't say this-- That I LOVE everyone I come into contact with-- Or that I can say "I Love Osama." Or "I love Saddam." That's crazy even to me!! Hell, I have enough trouble getting past the the idea of being able to say 'I don't hate the Yankees!!!'....The guy taking his sweet-ass time at the McDonald's drive-thru pisses me off... Because I'm not rooted in the moment. I'm not seeing, listening, breathing-- I'm full of fear, anger, frustration about the past & the future. I'm somewhere else-- Deep inside my own brain. I cannot see clearly.

Being non-violent is not passive. It is not inactive. To find peace, I have heard, I must first work every day to cultivate the conditions for peace to exist within me. No one can say--
"Good morning!! I'm Non-Violent!!! I have compassion!! I understand!!! I get it!! I Think I'll have a soy-chai latte!!!"

If they could, I'd be following them around all day.

And have a soy-chai latte, too. I deserve it...

But I am open-- I think-- I am praying for the willingness to start on the long, tough, uncertain path-- In order to maybe, possibly, someday-- create the right conditions within me for that idea to really take root & blossom in a way that is genuine. That would be freaking awesome.

That is worth working towards.

And I can only work on me. I cannot be responsible for what others do or say or believe-- Nor should I be-- But I can listen to them, I can try to be attentive and mindful and present and all of that really simple-yet-near-impossible type stuff.... And I can send emails to everyone I know.... And talk about peace...And hopefully I will touch someone else. And then maybe the seed grows and the whole thing is set in motion again. Maybe... and then, maybe not.

If we want peace, true peace, we must lay the groundwork-- Set the stage-- For the possibility of peace. We must create the conditions for it to exist. Millions of people are creating these conditions already right now-- you and I are doing that in our minds, hearts & souls. Right now,we are tapping & reinforcing something that is already there. We are creating the seeds of true peace RIGHT NOW as I write this & you read it.

As my character in 'Fifth of July' says: "Isn't that far out??"

Jackie, We have possibility all over us!!!

WEIRD!!!!EWW!!!PEACE!!!COMPASSION!!!UNDERSTANDING!!!GETITOFFAMEEEE!!!!!

(Humor goes a long way to getting the job done, too!!!)

Anyhow, tell Mom here's a great way to 'get the guy's attention.' On the subject of altering institutional government to begin the slow process of changing our view of conflict resolution-- Here is the best idea I've ever heard, from Congressman Dennis Kucinich. It involves shifting our perspective as a nation from 'War as the solution to everything', to the root causes of violence, and, even more beneficial, it can instill peace as a workable, easily practiced concept in our daily lives.

PEACE & JUSTICE,

Scotty Wichmann

"As we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, it is time to free ourselves, to jettison our illusions and fears and transform age-old challenges with new thinking. We can conceive of peace as not simply the absence of violence but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity. Of peace, wherein we all may tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness and conditions that impel or compel violence at a personal, group, or national level toward creating understanding, compassion, and love. We can bring forth new understandings where peace, not war, becomes inevitable. Can we move from wars to end all wars to peace to end all war? Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make non-violence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development for economic and political justice and for violence control. Its work in violence control will be to support disarmament, treaties, peaceful coexistence and peaceful consensus building. Its focus on economic and political justice will examine and enhance resource distribution, human and economic rights and strengthen democratic values. Domestically, the Department of Peace would address violence in the home, spousal abuse, child abuse, gangs, police-community relations conflicts and work with individuals and groups to achieve changes in attitudes that examine the mythologies of cherished world views, such as 'violence is inevitable' or 'war is inevitable'. Thus it will help with the discovery of new selves and new paths toward peaceful consensus. The Department of Peace will also address human development and the unique concerns of women and children. It will envision and seek to implement plans for peace education, not simply as a course of study, but as a template for all pursuits of knowledge within formal educational settings. Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear, from harm, from destruction. '

-Dennis Kucinich

Congressman Kucinich is the 2003 recipient of the International Gandhi Peace Prize. Former recipients include Eleanor Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez, A.J. Muste, Dr. Linus Pauling, Dorothy Day, Sen. Wayne Morse and Marian Wright Edelman. See website: http://www.pepeace.org/tmpl/gandhi.html

Scotty Turns the 'Double-Play' at Actor's Guild of Lexington!!

Plan for Professional Actors Scores a Run

Wichmann's performance in 'Rounding Third' showed talent & versatility

By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER CULTURE COLUMNIST

Rick St. Peter's effort to import fully professional actors and directors to Actors Guild of Lexington has been spotty thus far.

Frequently, the efforts have left the door wide open for local naysayers to complain that they could think of a Central Kentucky actor or director who could have done just as well or better.

Scott Wichmann's turn in Rounding Third might be where St. Peter makes his point.

In the show about an odd couple of Little League baseball coaches, St. Peter has his actors trading off the roles in the two-person play each night. Richmond, Va.-based Wichmann is paired with Adam Luckey, whom St. Peter calls "Lexington's leading man," and he gets no argument here.

But Luckey struggles with the transfer, while Wichmann seizes all the possibilities of both characters. Now, we have to qualify this assessment with a few things. Luckey was coming off a demanding and well-received performance as Jack in AGL's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Also, the subject matter of Rounding Third, baseball, is right in Wichmann's strike zone, while it's a bit more foreign to Luckey. Yes, an actor has to morph into a lot of characters, many of whom have nothing to do with him in real life. But actors are human, and it's not surprising that they might cotton to some characters more than others. In Rounding Third, Luckey excels as the character less interested in baseball but isn't as convincing as the baseball-obsessed man-child.

Wichmann, meanwhile, brings energy and conviction to each interpretation.

Now, does this mean that Wichmann is a better actor than Luckey? Not necessarily. Put these two in another show to role-flip, and you may well get an entirely different result.

But in Wichmann's performances, we get a look at how complete and well rounded a professional actor can be, and it's hard to think of an argument for a local thespian equalling or bettering Wichmann's imaginative performances. It leaves you anticipating his Tartuffe at Actors Guild next spring.

But it probably won't change some of the angst over importing professionals as opposed to casting locals.

Building Actors Guild into a professional company using actors who are members of Actors Equity, the stage actors union, was one of St. Peter's mandates when he came to the theater.
It might not have been the fairest thing to do to a young, first-time artistic director. In a town where only a few Equity actors live, bringing in the pros might mean some local favorites don't get roles they might otherwise have gotten, and that requires diplomacy and a delicate balancing act.

Shaking things up is not necessarily a bad thing.

Many a theater troupe has stagnated under cliques that dominate the cast lists. But if you're going to displace the locals, the pros have got to bring it, which hasn't always happened. In the St. Peter era, Actors Guild has yet to pull away from the local-theater pack in terms of consistent quality.

Because of a financial crisis, AGL had to scale back its pro ambitions this season, and St. Peter has done well with the challenge, imaginatively using the local talent he now knows better.

Lexington's indigenous talent base is too good to just toss aside in the name of progress.

But if you love theater, you have to be excited by the prospect of Lexington one day being home to a theater that consistently presents fully professional shows. And if that comes to fruition, the theater can be a launching pad for local actors to get their professional credentials, and give some of our resident Equity actors a place to play.

Of course, a key to ascending to the next level is a theater-going public willing to support the work with money at the box office and in contributions. In Lexington, the jury is still out on that.

For folks who are interested, Wichmann's turn in Rounding Third gives Lexington a taste of what a professional performer looks like on a local stage, what that future could look like.

It looks good.

Right around the 'Hot Corner'

Here is a small feature on 'Rounding Third' in the sunday arts section of the Lexington Herald-Leader here in Kentucky. We open this friday, April 21st...

Roles reversal
Two-man show's actors swap parts each night
By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER CULTURE WRITER

With a play that has several strong leading roles, it's fairly common for an actor to walk away with a desire to play one of the other parts somewhere down the road.

That won't happen with Actors Guild of Lexington's production of Richard Dresser's Rounding Third.

Each night in the two-man show, actors Adam Luckey and Scott Wichmann will play the opposite character from the ones they played the night before.

Gimmick?

Acting exercise?

Intriguing look at theater for AGL patrons?

Wichmann, Luckey and director Richard St. Peter claim all of the above.

"Hopefully it will show people who don't normally come out to theater what is possible when you just have two guys and a script," Wichmann says. "It becomes a completely different experience when we put the different roles on."

The play is about Don, a win-at-all-costs little league baseball coach, and his new assistant coach, Michael, who has no experience and is in it for the fun. "If this isn't as serious a commitment as you make to your job, your marriage, I respectfully suggest that you bow out," Don tells Michael in the first scene.

Michael refuses to step aside, setting up a turbulent season for the team, particularly when the team makes the playoffs and Don decides to cheat to win.

"Taken in and of itself, it's not a great piece of dramatic literature," St. Peter says. "I don't think we'll be studying Rounding Third 200 years from now.

"But when you put it in the context of its time, I think it says a lot about where we are as a society and what it is that we stand for. What do we want to accomplish? Are we breeding the next generation of Enron CEOs, or are we going to figure out some way to instill some empathy within our children, which we seem to have lost as a society?"

The play is close to St. Peter's and Wichmann's hearts, as both are baseball nuts, and St. Peter once seriously aspired to a professional baseball career.

Luckey admits that a lot of his cohorts' baseball repartee flies over his head, but he sees parallels between theater and team sports in that both are small groups of people who come together for a set period of time to accomplish a goal and then go their separate ways.
This goal just happens to be a bit more daunting, as both men basically have to learn the entire play and play very different characters every night.

For Luckey, it was a particularly arduous undertaking as he started Rounding Third rehearsals while he was playing Jack in Actors Guild's production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
"There are times you think, 'What am I supposed to say next?'" Luckey says. "'Who am I?'"
St. Peter says he was inspired to do the role flipping after John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman did the switch-off in Sam Shepard's True West on Broadway in 2000.

"For me, the challenge was process," St. Peter says. "How would you rehearse it, how would you make it happen. In a commercial setting, they have as much time as they need for rehearsals. Could we make it happen in a non-profit setting where we have four weeks?"
As opposed to each actor just stepping into the character's blocking, the actors and director say, it's like producing two plays.

"It was important that they brought their own individual impulses to each character," St. Peter says.

Luckey notes, "There's a different physical relationship," as he is a head taller than Wichmann. In a rehearsal, as the two trade off the opening scene, it's apparent that Luckey's Don uses size to intimidate Michael, while Wichmann's Don is "a bulldog," St. Peter says.

Referring to his stars, St. Peter says that if the production had been done with each actor set in one role, "it would have been a great show. But why not stretch ourselves? Why not challenge them, challenge us, challenge the audience and take a step forward and say, 'Look, we're capable of doing this.'"

'Rounding Third'
When: April 21-May 14, performances at 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun.
Where: Downtown Arts Center, 141 E. Main St.
Tickets: $24 general admission, $18 ages 65 and older, $15 students with valid ID. Available at the Downtown Arts Center box office, by calling (859) 225-0370 or at www.actors guildoflexington.org.

Preview performances: There will be previews, essentially final dress rehearsals, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's performance is "pay what you can," and Thursday's is $20 general admission, $15 ages 65 and older, $12 students with valid ID, $6 student rush (available five minutes before curtain).

Reach Rich Copley at (859) 231-3217 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3217, or rcopley@herald-leader.com.

Scott Wichmann, Child of the '70's & '80s...

Are you a child of the 70s 80s or 90s?
I was born in '73, so I got to experience the best of the seventies: Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, Disco, Freddy Lynn, The Muppet Show, 'Magic Garden', The Electric Company, The Sweathogs, The Banana Splits, Olivia Newton-John (DAMN sister was fine...) 'Reggie Bars' (even though I hated Reggie Jackson) Roller-Skating, and playing outdoors all day long without anyone being afraid I was gonna get stolen, shot, stabbed, sold or hooked on crack.

Then in the '80s I discovered Atari, comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, Hip-Hop music, Slasher Flicks, Rubber Cement (That shit will FUCK YOU UP!!) parachute pants, Knight Rider, 'The Greatest American Hero, and, eventually, the opposite sex.

Unfortunately, the above list of interests caused 'the ladies'*TM to delay their interest in me until their late twenties, when most of them turned around, noticed they weren't getting any younger and their options suddenly began drying up.

Then I looked pret-ty damn good...

(*To be read with a very deep, sexy voice. No-- deeper than that. ...You disgust me.)

Where were you born?
Pittsfield, Massachussetts-- the 'pregnancy-alcoholism-lottery-ticket-sales' capital of the galaxy. And there's a Dunkin Donuts there, too....two, actually...

If born in another country, when did you come here?
...1923.

What city did you grow up in?
-Pittsfield, MA
-Oahu, Hawaii
-Bellows Falls, VT
-Factoryville, PA
-....and back to Pittsfield, MA.

The Hawaii part is true. I nearly drowned in a pool at age four.

Fuckin' Brady Kids...

Did you enjoy your childhood?
Hells yeah. except for my first childhood job --the indentured servitude of scooping up Ewok shit at the Endor national Battlefield Park, Museum & Taffy Factory.... WHAT DO THEY EAT???

When you were a kid what did you want to be?
This may sound funny, but when I was like 8 years old, I wanted to work for McDonalds. No shit. Apparently I was inspired by their corny-ass TV commercials:

-the one where it's the old guy's first day on the job; (Incredibly touching-- apparently this was before they started melting the elderly employees down into the 'McSoylent Green Shamrock Shake' mix-- you could look it up)

-The one where the kid's dad takes him to Mickey D's after the traumatic experience of having to endure his first haircut (The kids all crying & carrying on, and supposedly all it takes are some fries to calm his paralytic fear that some inept, liqured-up Mayberry barber will accidentally slice off one of his Jinormous ears)

-The one where the kid goes to McD's after dunking in a game for the first time (In the interest of full disclosure, the kid is white, so we can all safely assume it's a complete fairy tale)

-I am a total, complete and utter retard.

-actually I really just wanted to smoke a fatty with the fry guys and chill listening to some 'Bob Marley & The Hartford Whalers.'

....So, LSS* when I was fifteen, I got a job at McDonalds and stayed for four years. it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I'm gettin misty just thinking about it.
I also wanted to be a Comic Book Artist, The Red Sox second baseman, Spider-man, the fourth Beastie Boy, and the world's first Musical-Comedy porn star. There's still time, and I'm still stupid.

(*The even shorter version of 'Long Story Short.')

What was your favorite toy when you were little?
Katie Maturvitch.

...and the Millenium Falcon.

Both were made by KENNER.

What was your first best friends name?
Satan. He ate my set of Fat Albert Shrinky Dinks.

PURE EVIL.

Are they still your best friend?
Oh yeah-- but he has the whole Real Job/2 kids/Mortgage thing, and I'm still mad about the Shrinky Dinks, so it's hard for him to have a grown-up conversation with me.

If not, who are your best friend/s now?
Zac, Steve-O, Rick, Steve Bryson, Jennie

How did you meet them?
-Zac was placed in a wicker basket on my doorstep at age fifteen. After we spent two hours getting him out of the basket, he just stayed with us.
-Steve-O and I were separated at Birth.
-Rick found me drunk in his glove compartment in '97.
-Steve Bryson carried me like Samwise Gamjee for like four years.
-Jennie is using me for sex.

Can you name all the schools you ever attendeded?
Berkshire Center for Families & Children
Springside (Kindergarten)
Lenoxdale Elementary- 1st & 2nd Grade
Lenox (Cameron) Elementary(MA)- 3rd Grade
Westminster Elementary (VT)- 4th & 5th Grade
Factoryville Elementary- (PA)6th Grade
Lackawanna Trail JrSrHS-(PA) 7th, 8th, 9th Grade
Pittsfield High School- (MA) 10th, 11th, 12th Grade
Wagner College
Alcoholics Anonymous

Who was your first crush?
Helen Slater from the 'Supergirl' movie (Pictured above. Dreamy, huh??)-- I kept waving at the screen but she never noticed me.

Were you a shy quiet kid or a very wild and roudy kid?
Do you mean 'Rowdy?'
Jesus, MYSPACE is hiring MFA's to write these things, huh??
Both. I would go off like the class clown and then be all like, "Don't approach me... I'm about to be brilliant," then withdraw and begin eating paste.
That was during my senior year.
Of college.

When you were little what did you do for fun?
Black tar heroin.

Were you closer to your Mom or Dad as a kid?
Mom-- she was my supplier.

Do you have any embarrassing school stories to share?
Yeah, this one time Fonzie had to show up at the High school to rescue Richie Cunningham from this bully-- You should have seen the look on the bully's face--
oh, you meant me.
Well, I lost my lunch money to Theresa Bauer on a bet that the Sox would win game 7 of the 1986 world series. So not only was I heart-broken when the Sox lost, but I went hungry the following day (tuesday,October 28, 1986). But she was smokin'-hot so I really didn't care. That was the first time I gave a smokin'-hot girl money to make me feel bad.

Now I do it at least twice a week.

What was the first record, tape or CD you remember buying?
Culture Club's 'Coulour By Numbers.' I played it like 292,867 times. By my calculations, I'll probably be gay any minute now.

How old did you want to be when you got married?
Older than 30. It was real close-- I was 29 when I tied the knot. My wife said she loved me just before the last rose petal fell.(We're still waiting for me to transform...)

How old to have kids?
I'm gonna say somewhere in my seventies, like Tony Randall.

Were you scared of anything?
Max Schreck's NOSFERATU, The film MAGIC with Anthony Hopkins, and ventriloquist dummies in general, except for Willie Tyler & Lester... They were too cool to make me afraid.

YOU DIG??

What was your favorite class in school?
Gym, Art Class, and Naptime, although I'd wake up with my face stuck to the little blue mats we slept on... covered in someone else's blood...

Did you buy school lunch or bring your own?
A mixture of both-- sometimes I sold my lunch to keep our school arts programs up and running.

Broke any bones or had any freaky accidents as a kid?
Yes, the high-stakes world of second-grade NHL Wagering is the seedy underbelly of the elementary education system. I can't say more than that because I owe Two-Grand to a Brownie on accounta the San Jose Sharks lost last night... Keep an ear to the ground, willya?? If a three-foot chick flashes a Merit Badge, RUN!!

Were you a meanie head or miss priss?
I was a nice, normal kid with a healthy dose of self-loathing and low self-esteem, but the cult took me in and put me in charge of the Drive-Thru Window. Problem solved.

Favorite board game of all time?
'Naked Hot Lesbian Jello Twister' From HASBRO

Did you play house or pretend to be a super hero?
Both. I orchestrated elaborate super-domestic scenarios such as 'Superman Making a corned-beef sandwich', 'HULK's Crushing depression,' and 'Green Lantern breast feeding Sinestro'. My favorite was 'Captain America injecting performance-enhancing drugs in the bathroom while somehow keeping it a secret from the media & his immediate family'

Random memory from when you were a kid.
That time I said 'Huey Lewis & the News are the greatest band EVER.' I MEANT it.
The 'heart of rock n' roll' is STILL beating.

In Cleveland...

DETROIT!!!...

Seriously..are you still just a kid at heart?
I WANT PINEAPPLE JUICE!!! DOODY-HEAD!!!

*FART!!* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Any more questions?? Where are you going??... punk bitch...

(SIGH)

haha...'doody-head'....

'Game of Shadows' Closes the book on Bonds.

I just finished reading Game of Shadows by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, and I have to say that I am disgusted by the steroid controversy that has seemingly engulfed major professional sports. The new book chronicles the investigation into illegal steroid distribution by Victor Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-op, (BALCO for short) a front-business which supposedly dealt in 'Supplements' and 'Mineral Deficiency Testing'.

Conte is portrayed as a spotlight-hog with a used-car-salesman style; A twenty-first century snake-oil salesman with a 'Boris Badonov' mustache & a passion for 'creating' elite athletes. At once described as a 'Jock-Sniffer' Conte has a pathological need to cozy up to athletes in the spotlight, and he designs a system of building championship athletes through a carefully constructed regimen of new, undetectable 'designer' performance-enhancing drugs.

Track stars Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, NFL Linebacker Bill Romanowski, and many others associated with BALCO are exposed as outright frauds caught in a corrupt, world-wide culture of sports doping, and the authors have done their homework. By meticulously re-constructing events through e-mails, wiretap transcripts, interviews and grand jury testimony from IRS agent Jeff Novitzky's sweeping ivestigation into the corrupt inner workings of BALCO, Fainaru-Wada & Williams paint a vivid picture of the dark heart of the high-stakes, big-money world of competetive athletics.

Yet the focal point of the story (And, one could argue-- from a narrative viewpoint-- almost vindictively so) is San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who, at the time of this writing stands only a few homers shy of eclipsing Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time MLB home-run list. Bonds is portrayed as a selfish, petulant, arrogant, violently moody superstar whose ire over Mark McGwire's steroid-fueled record-breaking single-season total of 70 homers in 1998 motivates him to cycle onto what he calls 'The Shit.'

Bonds forms a mutually beneficial working relationship with longtime friend and trainer (and small-time steroid dealer) Greg Anderson, whose ties to Conte's BALCO labs give Bonds just the right resources he needs to fuel his pursuit of Big Mac's tainted mark. Bonds agrees to promote Conte's products in return for a regimen of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, which include Winstrol, Epitestosterone Decanoate (The 'Cream'), The undetectable Human Growth Hormone, Norbolethone (The 'Clear'), The Narcolepsy Drug Modafinil, and even Trenbolone, a drug used in beefing-up cattle. Thanks to Conte and Anderson, Bonds gains fifteen pounds of muscle in just under 100 days, and his Giants teamates take to calling him 'The Hulk'.

Bonds then almost doubles his career homerun output past the age of 35-- the five best seasons of his career come after most other ballplayers start breaking down-- (Could one view Roger Clemens' post-'twilight' success in a new way??? hmmm) --and he hits 73 home runs in 2001, shattering McGwire's record with an offesnive explosion that would propel him past some of the greatest names to ever play the game.

Along the way, we are given glimpses into Bonds' inner world, one where he is in complete, obsessive control of the people, places & things in it. Anderson, his trainer; Kimberly Bell, his longtime mistress; even Giants owner Peter Magowan, who defers to Bonds wishes in every way, ostensibly because, as Bonds tell him "Without me, you don't make no money."

Conte puts Bonds through several 'Test Run' drug screenings, in an apparent effort to judge the efficacy of his undetectable 'Clear' designer steroid. Bonds is tested privately on two separate occasions; These test-run screenings would come back to bite Bonds during his grand jury testimony, as he is unable to account for the suspect prescence of 'unusually high testosterone levels' in his body as a result of one private drug test through BALCO (as part of a 'test run')on december 2, 2002.

Eventually, Bonds' ties to Anderson & Conte (and his ever-expanding statistical successes) become tantalizing to other MLB players, such as then-Giants catcher Benito Santiago, and Yankee All-stars Garry Sheffield and Jason Giambi. These MLB stars get involved with BALCO in order to ramp-up their offensive output. Some, like Santiago, just want to hold onto a roster spot; Others, like Giambi and Sheffield cash in on their newfound 'pop' by selling their services to the highest bidder, the New York Yankees, in free agency. As Novitzky's investigation nears it's critical phase we are also given a look at the corporate and political spin machines as they try to minimize the damage done to the sport's perception. The USADA Olympic track doping saga is an incredible tale filled with threats, retribution and intimidation-- it reads like a spy novel.

We are given grand jury statements from Bonds which seem totally inconsistent with his seeming control-freak nature, as he claims to be ignorant of the substances--provided by Anderson--which he 'unknowingly' ingested or applied. He also claims willful ignorance of the Bonds-centered drug calendars seized from his trainer's computer. Bonds nimbly attempts to parry the investigators with more such nonsense, but with so much circumstantial evidence it is difficult to ignore what the 'real deal' points to...

And it is sad. Sad because the entire culture of the big-time athletic sytem seems to be dependent on these drugs which can kill otherwise healthy young men and women in the prime of their lives. All to shave off a second, or add ten feet; Turning a second place finisher into a world-record holder and a warning-track shot into a homerun. What's even sadder is the complicty by both the organizations who profit (Say, for example MLB who gladly couted the attendance figures in the mid-nineties when all of this steroid nonsense was brewing) and the athletes who represent the 'product' (Say, for example, the MLB Players Association, whose members play the 'exploitation' and 'victimization' card even though they have more power to effect internal change than just about any other union in the United States) Their inability to take care of each other and police their sport has resulted in this: Bonds, in his 'joyless pursuit of history,' (as Dan Shaugnessy --in a moment of uncharacteristic eloquence-- put it) accompanied by a cascade of boos.

The book seems to crest with the congressional hearings in 2005 (Which Bonds was not invited to, because he was still a 'person of interest' in the BALCO investigation) in which Oriole First-Baseman (and subsequent drug cheat) Rafael Palmeiro wags his finger in the Face of Virgina Congressman Tom Davis and says "I have never. Ever. Used steroids. Period." (riiiiight.) We also see disgraced slugger Mark McGwire wilt under the glare of the spotlight (No more Hardees ads for him) as Sammy Sosa does his best 'Chico Esquela' impersonation, hiding behind his language & his lawyer in an attempt to evade answering any relevant questions.

The appendix to the book is a fascinating look at the chronology of statements, transcripts & other source material-- Not to mention a look at the statistical side of Bonds' acheivements (Which, I must say, I haven't gotten to yet) It would be a difficult task to credibly refute all of the information contained in this volume (Though Conte has 'Promised' to do just that) and I'm very glad that these two writers spent the time to do the dirty work, the kind of work IRS Chief investigator Novitzky does to begin his BALCO investigation; Namely, digging through the garbage of the past to fnd some semblance of the truth.

I was struck by the words of all-time home run champ Hank Aaron when he is asked about steroids. He says, "Any way you look at it, it's wrong." That's kind of the way I feel as well.

I personally feel that Bonds is not a vicim of 100% bona-fide racial redjudice in this case-- although there is definitely a racial component to a good portion of white america' opposition to him. I personally don't see him as a martyr, misinterpreted genius or african-american activist-- Rather, I think he's an idiot. A greedy idiot. I know I'm a Buddhist, and I should be observing right speech, but Bonds doesn't appear to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. Let me explain.

When McGwire and Sosa both broke Maris' single season homerun mark in 1998, that was enough to raise eybrows. Sure, it was fun to watch, but after the euphoria had faded, many folks said "Hey, wait a minute, this can't be real." The rest of the world started catching up to what many in the sport alread knew-- that baseball was dirty, and these totals were probably the result of inflated numbers due to the use of performance enhancing-drugs. McGwire's 'andro' epsode and Sosa's subsequent corked-bat incident years later affirmed that belief for many folks, and turned the summer of '98 into a long-forgotten saturday morning cartoon, one that on repeat viewing just wasn't as good as it was when you were seven years old.

So what does Bonds do?? Is he satisfied with being widely regarded as the all-around best player in the game, even without the single-season homer mark?? No, instead he goes the 'Icarus' rout and decides to juice up for the first time in his life at age 34... when he has incredible career numbers already-- and before we can recover from '98 a season that saw the scaling of the 'Olympus' of single-season records, some 37 years in the making-- BANG!! Bonds eclipses the McGwire total of 70 with 73 of his own just three years later!! Talk about being un-original, short-sighted, selfish, AND stupid... Suffice to say, the lid is blown off... now people know something fishy is going on, and they want answers from Major League Baseball. Then players like '96 NL MVP Ken Caminiti start dying from steroids... Meanwhile, the government is ratcheting up it's pursuit of drug cheats worldwide.. McGwire ducks quietly out of the game... Canseco writes his tell-all book... The congressional hearings become a fiasco... and Bonds becomes the sole object of scrutiny-- The remaining poster-boy for cheating, the symbolic 'juiced ballplayer'-- sitting within striking distance of the two most beloved homerun legends of the game.

So-- How does Bonds react?? He reacts like a victim.

Well, I say he's an idiot. He should have seen it coming. He flew too close to the sun too fast-- He's like the guy who reaches for a few more stacks of hundreds in a heist, when he already has an armful-- and runs right into the television cameras.

Don't get me wrong; As a lifelong diehard baseball fan, I hope they go after McGwire and Sosa-- as well as Bonds-- and get to the bottom of just what was going on with them-- Not just to punish, because realistcally, how can you punish them without punishing the entire industry-- But to find out the truth. A wise man once said 'the truth will set you free.'

Without the truth, this sad saga can't ever have a hopeful resolution.

The book ends as the 2006 campaign is getting underway-- and here we are, on day three of the 2006 MLB season. Bonds' ESPN reality show premiered last night, on an evening when a cascade of boos (not to mention a syringe thrown by a fan) rained down on perhaps the greatest hitter the sport of baseball --or perhaps Victor Conte-- has ever produced.

Bonds, Steroids & Race.

It's a stressful day for Major league baseball, as commissioner Bud Selig has launched a steroid investigation just three days before the start of the 2006 season. Emotions are running high. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about the issues at hand.

There's a great article in thursday's edition of USA Today about Barry Bonds and the complex question of race against the background of the growing steroid scandal swirling around the San Francisc Giants Slugger. Here's an excerpt:

"As opening day looms Monday, baseball prepares an investigation of steroid use in the major leagues and the letters keep arriving, a debate gathers momentum:

Is Bonds, seven home runs from surpassing Babe Ruth for second on baseball's all-time home runs list, the latest African-American athlete to suffer the effects of racism, similar to the experience of all-time leader Hank Aaron?

Or is the anger directed toward Bonds a product of mounting evidence he used performance-enhancing drugs to reach this point in history?

Or could he be paying the price for a career of surly behavior toward fans and the media?

Whatever side of the debate they take, the participants — Bonds, other major league players and observers of the game — fervently and heatedly argue they're right.

"White America doesn't want him to (pass) Babe Ruth and is doing everything they can to stop him," says Leonard Moore, director of African and African-American Studies at Louisiana State University. "America hasn't had a white hope since the retirement of (NBA star) Larry Bird, and once Bonds passes Ruth, there's nothing that will make (Ruth) unique, and they're scared. And I'm scared for Bonds."

(The rest of the article can be viewed at www.usatoday.com)

....I take issue with the above statement from Mr. Moore, and I sent him an e-mail this afternoon to express my viewpoint about what he expressed. Here it is. If he responds, I'll post that here as well.

Subj: Barry Bonds & Steroids.
Date: 3/30/06 3:35:13 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Scott Wichmann
To: imoore7@isu.edu
CC: Scott Wichmann

Dear Mr. Moore,

I read your comments in thursday's USA TODAY feature story on Barry Bonds, and I have to respectfully disagree with you on a few points. You stated "White America doesn't want him to (pass) Babe Ruth and is doing everything they can to stop him,"....and "America hasn't had a white hope since the retirement of (NBA star) Larry Bird, and once Bonds passes Ruth, there's nothing that will make (Ruth) unique, and they're scared. And I'm scared for Bonds."

I am a white male, and rather than being offended by your comments, I simply choose think they are the comments of someone who has not considered all angles of the story. (And, frankly, someone who doesn't really follow the sports world that closely) There are some black americans that think, as you seem to, that MLB is going after Mr. Bonds "Simply because he is black," and choosing to ignore the overwhelming evidence that he used illegal perfomance-enhancing drugs. Conversely, there is a certain section of white America who hold onto racist attitudes for whom your assesment is correct. But they aren't the entire story.

The presumuption that ALL white people in America don't want to see Barry Bonds pass Babe Ruth is preposterous. I would be all in favor of his surpassing the Bambino's home run total had he gotten to where he is without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. It would be nothing but good for the game of baseball. Mr. Bonds would be a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer even if he had never gotten involved with Messrs Conte & Anderson at the BALCO Lab, and it pains me to see the overwhelming evidence of his 'juicing.'

To me, his accomplishments would be more impressive (from a historical perspective) had he NOT used perfomance-enhancers in an era where many others did. I have so much more respect for guys like Ken Griffey, Jr for playing the game the right way, even though his numbers don't have the eye-popping totals of Mr. Bonds. It has nothing to do with race, at least not for me. I wish that MLB would place an asterisk next to the MGwire single-season total of 70 homers and duly note the statistics of Rafael Palmeiro and Jose Canseco. The stats of slugger sammy Sosa are suspect as well. The entire era in baseball is tainted, (Much like the segregated pre-1947 era) and unfortunately for Mr. Bonds, his monumental achievements make him the present poster-boy for the rampant corruption and borderline consumer fraud that Major League Baseball played a huge role in perpetuating.

As a diehard lifelong baseball fan, I am more concerned about the safety and sanctity of Hank Aaron's magic total of 755 career home runs. Mr Aaron's homerun total represents something: Personal Integrity. How can you play the race card as your entire hand without looking at the issue of Steroids? You say you fear for Bond's safety-- What about his health?? Can you defend the man simply because he is a successful black man, staying ignorant of the other issues surrounding him?? What about the many young black (and white) men who will follow Bonds' lead, risking their health for a huge MLB payday?? Do you not fear for their safety?? What would Jackie Robinson say?? Two-time MVP and current Nationals manager Frank Robinson has advocated purging the stats of anyone found guilty of using steroids. He happens to be a black man-- is he a traitor to his race??

To adress your childish point that white america is mostly upset because it hasn't had a 'White Hope' since Larry Bird-- Just what the heck is a 'White Hope' anyway?? Aren't there plenty of white athletes who excel year after year?? Ever hear of Tom Brady? Roger Clemens? Mario Lemieux? I hardly think that white America is primed to lash out at Barry Bonds because of the residual shockwave caused by the retirement of Larry Bird in 1993. Your statement oversimplifies the complexity of the issue.

I look at athletes like Ichiro Suzuki, Yao Ming, Mike Grier, and the Irish National Baseball team as examples of sports figures who have made a positive impact on the world by defying convention and showing us what is possible. I will always root for anyone to strive for their best on the field as long as they display integrity, honesty, and passion. I am even willing to forgive those who have allowed that passion to cloud their judgement, as long as they are willing to take personal responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, it seems, Mr. Bonds is incapable of doing so, as is also the case with Mr. MGwire, Mr. Palmeiro, and the entire Major League Baseball hierarchy.

I look forward to your response, as it will probably contain points which I have heretofore failed to consider. Nevertheless, I wish you well.

Best Wishes,

Scott Wichmann