ABSTRACT
The independent sector is a kaleidoscope of human action. And the potential of the independent sector has, if anything, grown faster than the commercial sector's strength. Sometimes the independent sector does menial, dirty work, as when volunteer hospital aides empty the bedpans and bandage the oozing sores of patients in hospitals all across the country. But as often, independent institutions work with great sophistication, as when the Sloan-Kettering Institute develops an effective chemotherapy for some forms of cancer and doggedly continues to search for better ways to fight this killer. Independent action is sometimes almost invisible. Sometimes independent action is inane, as when a group sought to make Alcatraz a museum of horrors, its cells permanently occupied by wax replicas of the prison's famous inmates. Independent action is sometimes frivolous, as when groups are organized for treks in classic cars or to learn to be amateur clowns.
