I will be eternally grateful to Lancaster County Judge Michael J. Perezous for saving nothing less than the entire structure of our society.

In a Jan. 20, 1999 ruling he denied a request saying, "the likelihood of fraud, mistake, confusion and repeated and egregious error would result." He went even further saying that had he ruled for the applicant, "our society's record-keeping ability and concept of law and order would dissipate into chaos and confusion." Well, thank God for protectors of our society like Judge Perezous. The last thing I want to see is the collapse of our society.

The miscreant who made the initial application, after having it soundly denied, had the audacity to appeal the ruling to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. That court, of course, agreed with the sound wisdom of Judge Perezous stating that to rule for the applicant in defiance of the judge "would have far reaching consequences ... adverse to the public interest." And they went even further decrying that the application was "so bizarre that it would likely be met with repeated suspicion and distrust in both business and social settings". "Such a sweeping extension of a statute should come by legislative action, if at all," explained the Superior Court which ruled on the appeal on June 26, 2000.

Having heard of no pending legislation on the subject I must assume that none is forthcoming.

Her next option in her effort to overthrow modern society is an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She cites her First Amendment rights and the fact that, "No one has a problem with this. Not my son. Not my ex-husband. No one, except the court."

Mary Ravitch (nee Mary Gon) is the person who began this firestorm of Constitutional threat, encouraging Judge Perezous to say that a favorable ruling would "spawn insurmountable difficulties" both for the applicant and for society in general.

"I must confess that in my 17 years on the bench, I've never heard anything like this," pronounced Perezous.

We really should take more time and notice the many things that our diligent judges have saved us from over the years. They probably get too much blame for things that society doesn't agree with and not enough credit for being there at the final portal saving us from being overrun by the modern Huns. Like Rome, our society might begin to crumble at the smallest failure of our courts to protect us. I, for one, stand firmly upon a personal platform of respect and admiration for the work that the judiciary have done through the years.

Even though she is from neighboring Neffsville, I have difficulty understanding why someone would purposely set out to harm our society so blatantly. I could see someone in California or Philadelphia or Stevens so threatening our national infrastructure-but not Neffsville!

Born Mary Gon she, as is our custom, took the family name of her husband upon marriage and has since divorced. Rather than keep her married name, Ravitch, or revert to her maiden name she appealed to the courts to legally change her surname to R. That's right, the single letter R.

Allowing a Mary R in our community is what is so threatening to our way of life-according to our learned judges. Hmmmmm?