The rally for guns at all costs held at the State House on July 3 (naturally) has inspired a suggestion for research into the nature of American society, also how it reached its present rather anxious state. Since this is the age of computers and other advanced research aids, why not find a way to compute how often the words “freedom” and “rights” as compared to the words “responsibility” and “duty” appear in speeches and arguments in our society? The statistical disparity might provide significant clues to our current problems, especially our concepts of government and what it is supposed to do apart from rallying us to oppose any “enemy from without,” near or far.

But what about the “enemy from within,” that is, the strong tendency to act only in one’s own or one’s group’s interests? To meet this challenge, we expect our government to pass laws to curb or reduce our inherent selfishness to bearable or manageable proportions. But just how much is bearable or manageable? This problem has been with us ever since the founding, but perhaps never more obviously than today.

Once upon a time, meaning in our youth, we could wait and see what “Washington” did about an issue, great or small. Today, because of instant or near-instant communication via the various media, especially television, we certainly do not wait and see. We are actually swamped in it, literally up to our ears and over our heads. This is why there is such a great desire for clarity on the issues under discussion in Washington; also a clear tendency on the part of some to becloud the issues, sometimes deliberately, sometimes out of ignorance. As an example of both, one may cite that gun rally at Augusta. Incidentally, the politicians who attended in their scramble for votes could hardly qualify as “profiles in courage,” such as those so designated by John F. Kennedy in his book some 40 years ago. Cecil J. Reynolds Old Town