I admire your effort to post such a letter to the list, Mr. Sullivan, and I also welcome your sincere desire to do something about the US's current problems. On a wholly constructive (I hope) level, however, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that the only thing simple and workable about your proposal was the proposal itself. I'm concerned as to exactly HOW D-TV would become the national research focus leading to US leadership with respect to that technology. One of the main reasons Japan and Germany (but Japan especially) have taken the lead in a number of technologies is that the governments of those countries are directly involved with decisions affecting how businesses operate. When Japan sees a new technology avenue, the government corrals CEO's and engineers from all of the top companies, explains that Japan wishes them to develop, say, HDTV, and pretty much commands them to do it and have it ready yesterday. The US, by virtue of their traditional laissez faire attitude towards business, would have a near-impossible time trying to do the same thing. No one here seems to understand that cooperation can work for everyone; Zenith would rather pursue its own avenues and hope to reap gigantic rewards for its own (I just used them as an example--Zenith is not alone). I agree with you that DTV is a technology that should be pursued as a country rather than by one company or another. Unfortunately for us, that's not how our system works, and changing the system is admirable and probably preferable but renders your proposal not the least bit simple and only marginally workable. Let's get a national strategy togther and THEN work piece by piece on good projects like that you discuss. I must say I'm stumped as how to do this, and it's easy for me to be a naysayer to your hard work and thought. I would appreciate if you or anyone could address my concerns. Back to the silly-- Mark