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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Dec. 17, 1959
A Man and Christmas
"What's the matter with Christmas?"
Nothing! Nothing under the star-lit sky.
Christmas to us is many things, each more beautiful than man ever can be. But at this time of year, he comes most near to the perfection that is the season.
Christmas is a dimly-lit cathedral, a sanctuary in a humble country church, and a thousand voices singing "Oh, Holy Night..."
It is a boy of two, dressed in pajamas, who doesn't know the meaning of the word. But he reads in the faces of his proud and happy family that all is right and always will be as long as the tree, the presents and the fire under the mantel exist.
Christmas is a group of carolers making their way slowly through the snow to a house at the far end of town. A street light is their star and a song is their union. They are men and women who know and understand one another and know the meaning of "good will toward men."
"What's the matter with Christmas?"
This is the question the cynics ask increasingly as the years roll by. They answer it without waiting for our reply.
Their answers take many forms, but all lead to the same conclusion:
Christmas has become too commercialized. It has lost its meaning.
To us, Christmas is a time for appreciating life. The feeling it gives us is like the emotion stirred
by the coming of spring when nature makes all young things beautiful.
But now, it is the old—the traditional—that is revered, and herein lies the sacred beauty of the season.
"What's the matter with Christmas?"
Nothing! Nothing, brother, and a star still shines up there.
Christmas is the feeling you have when the morning is clear and snow clings to the window sill. People laugh at Christmas time and they have no enemies.
Christmas is a service in a church and not a word is said.
Christmas is all the people you know, and more important, those you have never seen.
It is the time when men who know there might not be a God forget ... and every man becomes a part of something all men can believe in. Every man is a better man. And regardless of what happens the rest of the year, he can never return to what was before.
For once he has had Christmas)he has had all the best that this life has to offer.
We can't find a thing the matter with Christmas. Except that it is beauty in its most perfect form. Perhaps this is too much to give to man...
But we don't think so. For he has done much for it...
As. in truth, it has done much for him.
George DeBord
Respect Budget Action
Three cheers for extra-curricular activities and the leaders of those organizations. Place the laurel wreath on the furrowed brow of the student leader who has said to his organization, "We've got to push KU! We need money to grow."
Give place to that same leader who, contrary to current thought, has become well enough informed to know when his University is being trampled under the feet of politicians.
Look with respect upon the group of students who have the courage to fight against the possible lowering of scholastic standards by means of the public apathy allowing Kansas legislators to cut away the framework of its educational system.
Be proud of the student who stands in front of a group and urges its members to write a letter to their representatives. Listen when he points out the dangers of another budget cut.
He flatly states these things:
KU needs sufficient salaries in order to obtain and retain an outstanding faculty. While the number of students at the University increases, the number of faculty positions remains the same. KU faculty members do not have fringe benefits such as a retirement plan to augment a low salary; they do not have even adequate office space.
KU needs more classrooms. Night classes in courses required for graduation, and large classes meeting in drafty annex buildings, are but two of the fruits of aborted planning, or the lack of planning.
Watson Library needs space to shelve books that it now stores in the football stadium. Students need these books, but cannot get them when they are out of circulation.
These are some of the things the student leader will mention. He will make an honest attempt to arouse his fellow students to the real peril their fellows will be subjected to in ten years if KU does not meet its responsibility of growth.
Rally around this student. Help him by sharing his hope for an adequate budget promoted by an aroused public. Share his belief that we students, can and will make KU the place it is destined to be—THE center of learning in the midwest.
Support the extra curricular activities which are filled with the same student leaders who are alarmed and armed to battle the bigoted politician.
Write your representative, tell him the facts. Talk to your parents, tell them the facts. Be proud of your University, and its leaders. They have given you the facts. —Saundra Hayn
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
In the Dark
Speaking of Christmas trees, they're getting kind of hard to find ever since they put that night watchman on duty at the tree nursery south of Allen Field House.
With John Morrissey
We're going to have a Christmas party at our place this week. Everyone will sit around the tree, sing, and exchange fifths. Pardon me, gifts.
--mines, and broken the power of the armed forces in the country. The author evaluates each one of these moves in separate chapters. He finds that the Bolivian Indians have been brought into the national life for the first time in Bolivian history. The Indians support the MNR, feel that the government is concerned about their interests, and provide the moving force to keep the momentum of the revolution.
Dailu hansan
UNIVERSITY
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By Gabby Wilson
THE WAYWARD WEST, by William J. Barker; Doubleday and Co., $3.95.
Bill Barker, the Denver Posts' "most confused reporter," takes his life story, tries to show some wit, and produces a second rate Max Shulman book.
After glancing back at the book it is still hard to come up with anything in the way of praise. Most of the "witty" comments are far from funny. At times you fell embarrassed for the author because the jokes are so pointless and fall so flat.
In the case of most books a few things can be singled out as being good, but that cannot be said for this book. It could be because an imitation has nothing original enough to gain praise, unless it is better than the original. Maybe the book was not intended to be a copy of Max Shulman, but the end result is a very weak Shulman-esque.
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By Robert D. Tomasek Assistant Professor. Political Science
THE BOLIVIAN NATIONAL REVOLUTION by Robert J. Alexander, Rutgers University Press, $7.50.
This book is an evaluation of the economic-social revolution the Bolivian government has been attempting since 1952. The author, a professor of economics and leading Latin American specialist, does an excellent job. He visited Bolivia six times over a period of ten years, interviewed many of the Bolivian governmental officials, and observed the revolution as it progressed.
The book is copiously footnoted with Bolivian books, laws, reports, etc. The writing and approach to the subject is far superior to any book on the Cuban revolution in the last two years. It is not a book of vague impressions, or a book written hurriedly to take advantage of dramatic events. Rather it is a book in which a specialized economist uses his tools to analyze the implications of the Bolivian revolution. The author draws upon his studies of Latin American labor movements and Aprista parties to sharpen his focus.
Movement Lauded
On the whole Professor Alexander finds the Bolivian economic-social revolution laudable. Since 1952 the MNR, the party behind the revolution, has brought about land reform, nationalized the tin
The revolution has been accomplished through a political process that by Latin American standards can be considered as fairly good. Although the MNR obtained power in 1952 through a revolution, there have been free presidential elections since that date and organized opposition parties have been allowed to operate.
This is rather remarkable since the opposition Socialist Falange party does not abide by the rules of the game, having staged some six coup d'etat since 1952. The author does point out a few flaws in the political process. Two newspapers have been heavily censored. Revolutionary zeal has not meant the end of corruption or nepotism in government, although it has lessened it.
Finally, the MNR party is badly split between right-center-left wings with the consequent result that it is hard to determine where the real decision-making power lies.
U.S. Support
The author in an interesting chapter describes the persistent efforts of the United States government to support the revolution. The causes for this policy, in contrast to general United States policy toward Latin America, are explained along with the consequences of this support.
In the last chapter Dr. Alexander thoughtfully compares the Bolivian revolution with the Mexican revolution. He suggests that these two economic-social revolutions can only be analyzed in respect to their long term results. The Mexican revolution experienced ten years of fighting and chaotic political conditions in the 1920's before concrete results were produced, and the Bolivian revolution is suffering somewhat similar tensions.
It would be interesting to compare the Cuban revolution with these other two. If the author had done this, he might have recommended that Fidel Castro eventually channel his movement into party organization. Castro would undoubtedly win the major elections through popular support, as has happened to the main revolutionary party in Mexico, but opposition in due time would be able to provide criticism of the governmental programs.