Watching the World
“Organized Violence”
A leading U.S. political scientist, Professor Leslie Lipson of the University of California, said a world revolution is now taking place and he predicted the end of nation states and nationality as they exist today. “The evidence is in all the challenges to established authority,” he said. “Governments all over the world are in trouble, the pope is in trouble, university presidents are in trouble and tremble in their offices. Most serious of all is the evidence of unbridled, organized violence. This is a generalization, but I believe it to be true that this century is the most violent on record in human history.” The professor said the course of the world shows that nations are pursuing a “wanton and reckless destruction of the physical environment.”
Childbirth in Schools
Last year New York city’s elementary and secondary schools reported 2,487 pregnancies among unmarried girls in the 7th to 12th grades. This was nearly double the figure of eight years ago. Dr. Daniel Schreiber, Assistant Superintendent in charge of the Board of Education’s program for pregnant teen-agers, said that in the last two years the school system had dramatically revised its policy for pregnant students. In the past, he said, the girls were dismissed from school as soon as their pregnancy was detected. Now they are encouraged to attend virtually up to the time of childbirth. Since pregnant girls are encouraged to remain in school, the Department of Health has issued instructions to all these schools on what to do if a pregnant student goes into labor or gives birth while in school. Abraham H. Lass, principal of Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, said: “The implications of this do-it-yourself manual for the amateur, occasional school midwife are absolutely terrifying.” Terrifying to many also is the thought that immorality is accepted with such indifference, as a normal way of life, and little or nothing is being done to inculcate high moral standards in these youngsters.
Churches Under Attack
An insurance agent said: “A lot of people think God is dead and so they attack the church. Fires are the biggest problem.” He said that churches all around the United States had suffered losses. The cost of theft insurance is so prohibitive that some religious groups prefer to pay for the losses than try to pay the insurance rates. A New York insurance company representative said: “The church is one of the primary social institutions and it’s being attacked. We are continuing to write churches, but we are not happy with the situation.”
Solar Flares
Lt. Col. Joseph K. Lambert, a space environmental scientist, tells about solar flares. “A solar flare,” he says, “is a sudden and unpredictable eruption from a small section of the sun. There’s a tremendous increase in the intensity of light and heat that causes all sorts of crazy things to happen. It louses up communications on the sun-lit parts of the earth, brings on magnetic storms, multiplies X-rays in the radiation belt and discharges high-speed protons into interplanetary space.” This thirty-nine-year-old scientist still gasps when he sees the photographs of a solar flare. The whole earth could fit into one little flare. The energy from a big one is equal to the explosion of a thousand million hydrogen bombs. “It’s frightening,” Lambert said. “It’s also humbling. Everytime I see a big one I ask myself, ‘Who . . . do you think you are?’” That is a question that all men could beneficially ask themselves.
To Pledge or Not?
For almost twenty years New York high school students have had a patriotic ceremony each morning. The schoolchildren participated in the daily pledge of allegiance and salute to the flag. On January 26 the High School Principals Association urged the heads of the city’s sixty-three academic high schools to suspend the ceremony because of confusion over the legal status of the daily ceremony. The planned action resulted from a decision that was handed down in Federal Court, Brooklyn. In that case, Federal Judge Orrin G. Judd temporarily enjoined the city school system from telling students they must leave their classrooms if they do not want to stand and recite the pledge. Judge Judd said the students had a constitutional right to remain seated. On January 30, school administrators throughout New York State were instructed by the Department of Education to continue the daily salute to the flag by students and let the courts decide how to deal with dissenters.
Fear Commuters
Trainmen on the Long Island Rail Road recently said they were afraid of “physical assault by commuters” angered by the new fare increase and the poor service. Trainmen threatened to refuse to operate trains unless they were given police protection on every run. To avert threatened work stoppages by trainmen, management personnel agreed to ride the trains with them and special policemen were stationed at key spots. By the end of the first day no violence had been reported.
Switch to Metric System
The Canadian government has announced that it will eventually convert to the metric system. Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are the only nations still dependent on the nonmetric system. Britain is working ward adoption of the metric system by 1975. The Canadian government believes that adoption of the metric system is ultimately inevitable and desirable.
The Right to Work
A prisoner confined to maximum security and its idleness appealed to the Federal Court for the right to work. The United States district judge stated that enforced idleness is an extreme form of punishment and ordered prison officials to produce a program of work, exercise and recreation for the prisoner. It was a defense contention that the prisoner’s mental powers have deteriorated as a result of his having been detained in solitary confinement with little to do but read and watch television.
The President’s Message
In his first State of the Union Message, the 37th president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, placed “first priority” on world peace and a “just” settlement of the war in Vietnam. But his major preoccupation was the state of America. Commenting on his speech, the New York Times said: “His picture was of a nation robbed of its natural heritage by human and industrial carelessness, cheated of the dividends of economic growth by inflation, poorly served by a proliferating Federal apparatus, and threatened by crime and the growth in population.” Nixon’s theme was best expressed perhaps in a rhetorical question. “In the next ten years we shall increase our wealth by 50 percent,” he said. “The profound question is—does this mean that we will be 50 percent richer in a real sense, 50 percent better off, 50 percent happier?” Does the record of the past ten years provide a sound basis for answering, Yes? The majority of the nation’s peoples who live in metropolitan areas choked by traffic, suffocated by smog, poisoned by water, deafened by noise and terrorized by crime see little reason for great optimism.
Sting of a Bee
Authorities warn that the sting of a bee, wasp or hornet could be fatal if not looked after immediately. The Greater New York Safety Council says persons who suffer a severe reaction to such a sting should seek quick aid. Reactions include continued pain, heat throughout the body, aching joints and the appearance of hives.
Bible Reading Barred
The Albert Gallatin school district, near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, had to end its practice of broadcasting prayers and Bible readings in school classrooms. Federal Judge Louis Rosenberg cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision of 1963 which held religious activities in public schools to be in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. However, the judge said that he was offering no opinion on “any religious observances resulting from the free actions of children meeting on their own time and of their own volition, even on school premises.”
Marijuana and Lung Cancer
The addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, Canada, reported that prolonged heavy smoking of marijuana ‘generates’ lung cancer. Studies in India have established that heavy marijuana smokers “suffered a greatly increased incidence of chronic lung disease.”
A Factor in Suicide?
The newspapers may be a causal factor in suicide, asserted Professor Jerome A. Motto of the University of California School of Medicine at San Francisco. It was noticed that the suicide rate in the Detroit area dropped 20 percent below normal between November 1967 and August 1968, during which time no newspapers appeared in Detroit, as the result of a strike. The suicide rate for women in particular dropped by 50 percent, to three per 100,000, during the newspaper blackout. Science News stated that professor Motto blamed newspapers for their “constant emphasis on violence, aggression, sexuality, power and notoriety.”
Maxi-Problems
Today’s woman, according to the Greater New York Safety Council, does not know how to wear maxicoats. Of course, the last time the long coats were worn was when people rode the horse and buggy, and since then things have changed. A number of department stores have found that the maxicoats and escalators do not make a good combination. In many stores signs are now posted in front of the escalators, saying, “Ladies, lift your maxis.” Subways and buses, with their high steps and automatic doors, pose still another problem for maxi wearers.
Children and Television
A mother from Shreveport, Louisiana, recently wrote the following: “My five-year-old used to have nightmares every night, awakening crying and screaming; he would wet the bed every night. Doctors had said there was nothing organically wrong with him. Then after learning about the importance of being discriminating in choosing television shows to watch, I realized that my children were watching too many monster pictures on television. Now there are no more monster pictures nor shows that include violence and there’s no more bed-wetting.” Perhaps other mothers may profit similarly by regulating what their children are viewing on television.
Catholics and Voodoo
A published account says that “more than 67 percent of Brazil’s Catholics attend macumba or voodoo sessions, 75 percent believe in amulets and 62 percent believe in sacrificial offerings, usually made to spirits. And yet 98.5 percent have their children baptized in the church.” Auxiliary Bishop De Castro Pinto of Rio de Janeiro confirmed these statistics and blamed the “superficiality of Catholic instruction in Brazil” for the facts they reveal.
Facing “Educational Suicide”
Episcopal minister Almus M. Thorp, Sr., executive director of the Board for Theological Education, revealed on January 25 that the Episcopal Church is having its enrollment and money problems. The crux of the matter, he emphasized, is a lack of money. Without a cutback and without substantial financial help from the man in the pew, Thorp said, the church’s ministerial training program would face “educational suicide.” Therefore, the Episcopal Church has decided to reduce the number of its seminaries from the present eleven to five or fewer.