In an era when being nice is the greatest virtue, and sensitivity, especially in males, is the most desired goal, it's surely refreshing when someone actually speaks his mind.

You may recall back in 1985, when Claire Giannini Hoffman, daughter of Bank of America founder A. P. Giannini, resigned her spot on the board of directors. She felt that current management was not doing things the way her father, who built the giant bank on the basis of personal service and trust, would have liked.

She could have sat back and clipped coupons, but, instead she stood up and spoke her mind.

Fast forward to November 3, 1999.

Otis Chandler, the former publisher of The Los Angeles Times and the former chairman of Times Mirror, its parent company, offered a sweeping denunciation of the newspaper's current management for its "unrealistic and impossible" circulation goals, its "unbelievably stupid and unprofessional" agreement to share profits with the management of the Staples Center, a new downtown arena, and its contribution to the decline in morale among the newspaper's staff.

Chandler made the comments in a letter to the newspaper's staff. In a searing repudiation of the policies of the current publisher, Kathryn M. Downing, and Times Mirror chief executive, Mark H. Willes, Chandler, an heir of the family that founded the newspaper, wrote, "One cannot successfully run a great newspaper like The Los Angeles Times with executives in the top two positions, both of whom have no newspaper experience at any level."

His statement came as it was learned that the Staples Center not only had entered an agreement with the newspaper to share the profits from the magazine, but encouraged one of its suppliers to buy advertising.

It is considered quite unethical for a newspaper to enter into any financial relationship with an institution that is the subject of continuing coverage.

The role of the arena in selling the advertising has become a bone of contention inside the newspaper, even after Ms. Downing moved last week to quell a fierce protest in the newsroom over the profit- sharing arrangement, apologizing to the staff and saying it reflected her "fundamental misunderstanding" of the role of a publisher.

Wow!! Talk about affirmative action! How would YOU like to get a job as the head honcho of one of the world's major newspapers and not understand what it is that you're supposed to be doing?

Chandler concluded his message with a reference to the members of his family who founded and ran The Times, saying: "When I think back and realize the history of this great newspaper under the hands of General Otis, Harry Chandler and my father Norman and succeeding publishers, I realize how fragile and irreplaceable public trust of a newspaper is. The trust and faith in a newspaper by its employees, its readers and the community, is dearer to me than life itself."

Kind of warms your heart, doesn't it, to hear this 71-year-old guy with more passion in his little finger for the business, than the two soulless humanoids currently running the show.

Who knows? Maybe Otis Chandler will start a trend: Speaking out, even when it isn't polite or politic.

One can hardly overestimate the amount of suffering that has occurred in human history, because the bad guys were allowed to roam free, solely as a consequence of our misplaced largesse.

Lest we forget the motto in more heroic times: Veritas supra pacem (Truth before peace)