(The Providence Journal, June 18, 1999) A STUDY conducted at Yale University in the early 1960s dismayed psychologists. Prof. Stanley Milgram had wondered, along with millions of others, how so many Germans could have tolerated or participated in the Nazi atrocities. And how could a person who had gassed thousands of Jews say later that he was not responsible for the killing: Rather, he was just "following orders"?

(Letter to the Editor, The Providence Journal, March 1, 1999). It was 1959 when Cubans led by Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista. Forty years later is none too soon to stop punishing them for it.

(The Providence Journal February 18, 2000). SUPPOSE YOU NOTICED that the news media were not reporting an enormous life-and-death story involving the United States. And suppose that you decided to tell something about it through a paid television commercial. Would there be a problem with that? A major humanitarian organization has a TV commercial telling of the suffering and deaths of Iraqi children and appealing for contributions for relief efforts. In December, on behalf of "Life for Relief and Development," I took that 30-second TV spot to Rhode Island television stations to arrange for broadcasting.

(The Chariho Times, April 20, 2000) When President Clinton attacked Sudan on Aug. 20, 1998 he told America that his target was a chemical weapons plant. Four days later Congressman Bob Weygand endorsed the missile attack, declaring "we had hard physical information about that chemical plant in the Sudan" and praising Clinton as "one of the greatest leaders we've ever had."

(The Providence Journal, March 1, 2001) For 10 years, Americans have traveled by car or bus to Iraq in defiance of U.S. government prohibitions. But the trip I joined in January, organized by Dr. James Jennings of Conscience International, was the first "airlift" of Americans carrying humanitarian supplies.

(The Providence Journal, March 6, 2001) Several times in recent years, Westerly has experienced polluted water. Residents were under orders to boil water as recently as December. Pawtucket and other communities have experienced similar crises, especially in the summer.

(The South County Independent, Janyary 3, 2003) The old Soviet Union often found it necessary to revise history. The process was heavy handed and not particularly effective. For example when Lavrenti Beria, chief of the Soviet secret police, was executed in 1953, libraries across the country received orders to remove the Beria pages from their encyclopedias and replace them with some enclosed pages about the Bering Sea.

(the Newport Daily News March 5, 2004). In rush to protect security, bad laws pass without proper scrutiny. If you were dismayed to learn that Gov. Donald L. Carcieri had not even read his "Homeland Security" bill, prepare to be dismayed again.

(The Westerly Sun, August 1, 2006) I did not truly understand the plight of the Palestinians until the early 1980s during Israel's occupation and bombardment of Lebanon and its Palestinian refugees.

(A Pamphlet produced by Rod Driver, 1968). (The Congressional Record, May 14, 1968, page S 5500.) SENATOR MARK HATFIELD (R, OR) in the Senate: "Mr. President, with other Senators I have spoken in the Chamber and accused the Johnson administration of not being candid with the American people concerning the war in Vietnam... But seldom have I seen this `credibility gap' revealed with such incisiveness as it is in a pamphlet prepared by Mr. Rodney Driver of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Mr. Driver has painstakingly researched and presented the administration's many myths about our commitment in Southeast Asia and then given the reader a view of Vietnam that comes much closer to reality."

(the New York Times, April 20, 1972). In the Soviet Union, when it becomes necessary to revise history, the Government can direct libraries to remove and replace certain pages of their encyclopedias (as was done with the biography of Lavrenti Beria)