The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 14

14 THE BOSTON GLOBE SATURDAY. MAY 28. 1983 (globe Founded 1872 WILLIAM O. TAYLOR. Chairman of the Board and Publisher THOMAS WINSHIP.

Editor JOHN P. GIUGGKJ. President MARTIN F. NOLAN. Editor.

Editorial Page RICHARD OCKERBLOOM. Executive V.P. JOHN S. DRISCOLL. Executive Editor DAVID ST ANGER.

Senior V.P.. Business Manager MATTHEW V. STORIN. Managing Editor. Daily ARTHUR KINGSBURY.

Treasurer MICHAEL JANE WAY. Managing Editor. Sunday MILLARD G. OWEN. P.

Marketing A Sales ROBERT HEALY. Associate Editor ROBERT H. PHELPS. Associate Editor Publishers WILLIAM O. TAYLOR.

1922-1955 President JOHN I. TAYLOR. 1963-1975 CHARLES H. TAYLOR. 1873-1922 WM.

DA VSS TAYLOR. 195S1977 if Circles at Alewife The best Esquire's had to offer LIT'RY LIFE I GEORGE V. IHGGI2JS Salvucci currently leans toward ramps near the Dewey and Almy circle that would obviate all of the concerns, provided that can be done without impinging on a neighboring Arlington playground. The issue for both Belmont and Arlington has been complicated by two factors, neither of which has anything to do with the Red Line extension. First, business growth In West Cambridge has already generated more traffic through neighboring streets, with the prospect of still more to come.

Second, both Rte. 2 and Alewife Brook parkway have long been a traffic zoo with aging bridges incapable of carrying heavy trucks and replacement long postponed while the MBTA traffic question was worked out. Allen was correct. Six men with more credentials aca demic and bureaucratic than decent in an orderly so" ciety are listed on the roster of those responsible for this term paper by purported adults. It is possible that one or more of them, all by himself and excused froov worrying about whether he'd be graded for his wcii upon the project, could have mustered something readable that would have served the evident purpose of restoring reason to the arms control debate, but so far as is known, none of them did.

Just a little whll ago. I predicted that Barry Commoner's New Yorker piece about methane would stand unsurpassed for rfnl1ncc in mafnr marfalA unHl ar 1nct ThonlrcrTHr- In 1980. the MBTA opened its Red Line extension to Braintree following months of local concern about the effect new stations would have on traffic in the area. Those concerns turned out to be unjustified. MBTA operations have been smooth and complaints have vaporized in the hum of normal operations.

Now. with a new extension at the other end of the Red Line slated to open within two years, a new hubbub Is stirring along the banks of Alewife brook; it appears to be as justified as the one In Braintree. Three communities are enmeshed in the latest controversy Cambridge, Arlington and Belmont. The bulk of the extension and its accompanying facilities are already in place, especially a 2000-car garage at the terminal where Rte. 2 meets Alewife Brook parkway.

State Transportation Secretary Fred Sal-vucci met this week with Belmont selectmen and then with a group of about 200 citizens to discuss the impact of the station on local traffic patterns and to hear expressions of concern at the local level. The unresolved issue in the controversy is access between Rte. 2 and the new garage and station. Cambridge is considering a service road running parallel to Rte. 2 to serve the burgeoning business development in its west end, a road Belmont officials say would be used for access to and from the garage and onto Belmont streets.

More to the point, however, such a road could connect with the Rte. 2 interchange at Lake street, preserving Belmont from most traffic impact. Jntf I wac mlstalcpn Of considerably greater interest. Derhaos because' the topic lacks the global importance of arms control and Iwanse the twsav urae nrpnn rfH hv nni tfnnri Fortunately, contact among all the interested parties has been firmly established and should stop alarmist rhetoric that had crept into some of expressions of concern. More tangibly, it should head off unwise litigation by any of the communities that would merely postpone a solution without producing a better result to the delight only of lawyers.

In congested urban settings, no transportation solutions are perfect, but the Red Line extension offers real promise of reducing rather than adding to road congestion in all three communities. While local worries are inevitable and deserve rational answers from state and local officials, it is clear that the Red Line is a step forward rather than backward and no one should try to change that. r' er easing his own spleen, is James Atlas' report about the posturing folks he encountered in writing his book' about Delmore Schwartz. Schwartz was a memberin. good standing of the literary group Including Alfred Kazin, Robert Lowell, Philip Rahv and Lionel Trilling Together they were vastly pretentious; by each was pretty nearly insufferable.

Atlas went into the project with a deference approaching veneration and emerged from it disgusted by the pomposity tie. met. Some of the people that he punctures In this piecej are still alive, as much as they have ever been; therfe' should be some commotion over it. Along with every other regular Atlanticist, I begin' each issue at the back, where Phoebe-Lou Adams's "Short Reviews" appear. This month's final which I will not spoil for you, is especially fine.

Wheti, Rallying against crime you have finished it, repair at once to Shirley Chris-( -tian's even-tempered piece about the generals in El' Salvador, partly because it is well written and ver unemotional, and partly because it sets up my next Item. Which Is about Adam Hochschild's essay on El Salvador in Mother Jones for June. Hochschild. an un The editors of Esquire in its 50th year elected with reckless abandon to observe the anniversary with two commemorative editions. The first of them is the June collection of fine and memorable writing published by the magazine since Arnold Gingrich started it.

almost inadvertently, back in Depression days a sort of "Way We Were" edition. The second, due for December, is to be the "Way We Are and "Apparently Are Going To Be" issue, and It's certain to provoke comparisons that Esquire's editors won't like. Those comparisons will not. of course, be fair. The current 446-page retrospective, after all.

represents close to the best work of the best writers who've appeared in these United States since 1933. It would be astonishing if it weren't wonderful, as it most assuredly is. and it will be earth-shaking if the December prospective, drawing upon a mere year or so of effort by good writers who happen to be breathing now. turns out to be its equal. Nevertheless.

Phillip Moffit and the people who work for him have, by opting for the symmetry of what-has-been and what's-to-come, invited further shelling from such cavillers as I. This is because the striking aspect of each of the pieces they've republished for this June is its apparent spontaneity. There is a certain passion to the prose that a good writer will deliver when his subject has engaged his personal involvement. Founding editor Gingrich, for example, was not among the first rank of the writers of his time and did not pretend to be. but his 1966 memoir balancing Fitzgerald against Hemingway displayed a sort of verve that showed his genuine emotions about them.

That sort of electricity is almost never to be found in the output of a writer hacking away at an assignment his editor proposed because it looked like it would fit a theme selected for a coming issue, and that he accepted out of need for money or distaste for idleness. It is that lack of fire which so regrettably distinguishes so much of what Esquire in its middle age, with two or three gold chains around its neck and rather too much powerful, high-priced cologne dabbed upon its carcass, has come to offer regularly in recent years, the dull prose that comes from the forcing house because somebody commissioned it, and is published chiefly because, after all, it was commissioned and the magazine does have to pay for it. Gingrich, originally setting out to create a high-priced, boutique magazine for men whose willingness to pay a lot for clothes had prompted the suspicion that they'd eat up snobbish reading, never did exert himself to make his unexpectedly popular creation conform to notions that he might have had. He went after writers such as Hemingway and paid them to commit such writing as they wished. When that seemed to work out pretty much to everybody's satisfaction, he did it some more.

When Gingrich wasn't there to run it (he decamped in 1946, returned in 1952, died in 1976), the magazine displayed a tendency to stumble and fall down, self-consciously attempting clumsily to meet somebody's preconceptions about what sort of magazine an affluent male reader between 18 and the grave would like to read. I really like the June issue. I hope the people who compiled it took the time to read it, and took some guidance for the future of the magazine. The Atlantic for June, speaking of the unexciting prose that results from assigning subjects to writers who are not Inflamed about them, leads with "The Realities of Arms Control" which is blamed upon what's called "The Harvard Nuclear Study Group." Fred Allen's rule was that committees produce nothing except papers fit for lining bird cages, and Fred have not learned that lesson at home, Project Commitment, a youth program designed by Chief Justice Harry Elam of the Boston Municipal Court, staged mock court hearings at five Boston schools. The civic exercise introduced the youngsters to the players in the criminal justice system.

It's up to them to choose which of the roles -good or bad they will play later. Neither fasts, marches or civic exercises can stop crime, but the combined attention can help if it signals that people who live in these neighborhoods will no longer tolerate the state of siege on Sonoma or any other street. Those who decry crime must break the code of silence when information is known about wrongdoers. They must intervene in potentially dangerous situations. Neighbors must look out for neighbors.

The rally against crime must do more than register more protests. It must send a message to those who make decisions about services in this city that Dorchester and Roxbury residents won't be written off now or in the future. "The crime is on us," a middle-aged woman lamented at a recent church meeting. "There's no Sonoma street going on anywhere else but in the black community." That block-long street has become Boston's center of illicit drug commerce. To combat crime, some Roxbury and Dorchester residents have sought more police from City Hall.

Others walk neighborhood patrols to guarantee the safety of their families. Still others seek future political solutions. Now, a group of ministers is advocating that the community takes more responsibility for the crime within its boundaries, some of it committed by young toughs who live there. To focus attention on the problem, they will lead a weekend rally against the muggings, illicit drug sales, rapes, assaults, arson, vandalism and the attacks on passengers riding MBTA trains and buses. They will march today from Police District near Dudley Station to Sonoma street and back to the Grove Hall section of Dorchester.

To teach right from wrong to children who abashed political southpaw like the rest of MJ's editfl rial contingent, dives into every subject with the firm intention of assessing it in terms of his own ideology. What distinguishes him from propagandists, hack's. and tiresome people on both right and left is his can' dor in declaring his bias, and the fact that he is He went "Inside the Slaughterhouse" of Salvador with -congressmen and reporters from CBS-TV. as fully. committed to protesting what he found as he was tb reporting it, and his choice of companions gave him considerable advantage in securing access to the people and the prison hellholes that he wished to That boon goes right up front in his piece, and it's crackerjack.

The issue also contains Edmund White's serene arJ tide describing how mature gay men endeavor 'to achieve some order in their private lives. It is devoid of boasting, whining, snivelling or carping, and it should serve as a model for any writer seeking to explain hid sexual behavior or preferences without making's damned wretched fool of himself or herself in the pro-' cess. I was not as impressed by Jack Cheevers and Spencer Sherman's essay which deplores the FBI's in vestigation of Steve Psinakis; they concede that Steve's been sitting there in San Francisco, stirring up a revolution in the Philippines and consorting with; chaps later found possessing bombs around Manila, but they fail to see why this should prompt the G-men to go visit him. Last weekend down in Edgartown the nativgs were bewailing the proximity of the dreaded tourist hordes, and Martha's restaurant was warming up fop James Van Der Zee us by charging $18 for one plate of linguine. It's just like mummy told us, folks; we let them do it to us, an4 they don't respect us afterwards.

George V. Hlggins is a Globe columnist. As a photographer, he chronicled the special occasions, the weddings, the parties, the parades, the homecomings of black Americans. He took pictures of people at their best during what were for most very hard times. He was born in Lenox when Grover Cleveland was President.

Though he began his lifelong fascination with photography in that small community in the Berkshires, he made most of his photos in New York's Harlem from 1909 to 1969. "I could always see beauty where it didn't exist," he said in an interview. The beauty that he worked so hard to capture contrasts with the overwhelmingly dismal portrayal of blacks, often the only portrayal during his era. As a commercial photographer, Van Der Zee preserved the memories of middle-class blacks but he also took utilitarian pictures for chauffeurs' licenses, passports and other needs. He gave the same meticulous attention to all the soldier boys on their way home and the celebrities such as Marcus Garvey, the nationalist; Adam Clayton Powell the legendary minister, and his son, Adam the congressman; Jack Johnson, the boxer, and Contee Cul-len, the poet.

Van Der Zee, a black, also photographed whites but his photos of blacks brought him fame, albeit late in his life. Some of his photos were part of an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1968. Three years ago, he came out of retirement to take pictures of such black notables as actress Cecily Tyson, comedian Bill Cosby, and singer Lou Rawls. James Van Der Zee wanted to live to be 100. He died recently at the age of 96 only hours after receiving an honorary degree from Howard University.

Through his pictures, his willingness to find beauty where there was none will live on. liflOOS fill 11111 1 When disciplined, students can learn sion, but rather a need to reinvent rules and discipline. Keeping students in school longJ er does not seem a practical soluj tion because learning to work inde" pendently at home is such an inte gral part of one's education. If parents would take their vision dials and their children's ed ucations Into their own learning would surely increase. Like charity, education at home.

NANCY E. Nantucket 1 Help for the Bahais Rally against US policy overlooked I must express my keen disappointment with the Globe's meager coverage of the Central America march and rally which took place in Boston May 14. This event was noteworthy for several reasons: It was a spectacular, colorful and spirited outpouring of concerned citizens. It afforded the people the opportunity of concretely demonstrating their great dissatisfaction with the Administration's foreign policy regarding Central America. Finally, the large number participating in the rally gave unmistakable witness to their disagreement with the message given by President Reagan on April 27.

The May 14th demonstration was top news, but the Globe chose to ignore it as such. Why? SR. GERTRUDE BARRON Coordinator Justice and Peace Office Boston Sisters of Notre Dame In his May 4 column, "Education's failure is ours too," William V. Shannon points a finger at television as a major culprit in the downfall of American education, an accusation with which I heartily agree. Mr.

Shannon goes on to say that "since it is impossible to disinvent television, it may be necessary to keep children in public schools every day until 5:30 to enable them to do under controlled conditions the studying that used to be called homework." i Wouldn't it be more sensible to simply turn the television off? There is no need to disinvent televi- Sign of the times I couldrft help noticing as I rode into Boston on the Southeast Expressway the new sign. "ONEWAY TOLLS. ONE LESS STOP IN YOUR LIFE." Isn't it just like our state government to spend thousands of tax dollars in these tight times to tell us they finally had a good idea WAYNE STRATTMEN S. Weymouth From a humanitarian standpoint, there can be nothing but wholehearted support in this country for President Reagan's plea to the Aya-tollah Khomeini of Iran to spare the lives of 19 Bahais scheduled to be executed. The Bahais are a relatively small sect which was founded in 1844 and whose members believe in the divine origin of all major religions including Christianity and Mohammedanism.

They have no clergy, believe in nonviolence, and urge 'the eradication of prejudices of race, creed, class, nationality and There are Bahais in most countries around the world, including 100,000 in the United States and more than 300,000 in Iran. It is believed that about 150 Bahai men and women have been hanged or shot In Iran since Khr meini came to power, four years ago. They are objects of suspicion because they have temples and members in Israel and in the United States and because they favor equality for women. Since most Bahais are also members of the liberal middle class, they are natural scapegoats for reactionary fanatics. It Is to be hoped that the President's intervention does some practical good.

But given the bad relations between our two countries, it might have been more prudent and effective if the President had quietly encouraged other nations to take the lead in speaking to Tehran in behalf of the Bahais. It is good to have the United States working for the protection of human rights but, as the old adage has it, the longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home. (Hobo Newspaper Company 1.15 Moirissry blvcl ItoMon. Mass. 02107 617 9292000 A wholly owned subsidiary of ArTII.IATKI) INC.

WILLIAM TAVLOH darrmail of the Ihiurd JOHN I. UUGGIO VrsidcMl AKllll'H KINUKUUKY treasurer EDITORIAL POINT Babies are charming, but you can't depend on them for stimulating conversation..