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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Dec. 5, 1958
Short Circuit Defense
There was an air raid alert in Washington, D.C., the other day. A short circuit in the warning system set sirens moaning all over the city, warning the natives to flee the city.
So the good burghers of Washington continued their business, stayed on the streets, and ignored the racket.
The Civil Defense people are quite provoked about the whole thing. Even though the alert was accidental, they feel people should have taken heed and tried to protect themselves.
But there is a reason why the Washingtonians were so unconcerned about being atomized. The world is, in effect, ruled by power groups that have the bomb and threaten to use it. The public belief, supported recently by an association of scientists, is that atomic bombs can wipe humanity off the earth.
One might reasonably expect the thinking citizen to be in a state of constant, nerve-shredding panic. Obviously,the people of Washington are not.
The mind receiving too much pain finds relief in unconsciousness. In the same way, the mind presented with an insoluble problem simply erases the problem from its awareness. The public, unable to do anything about the most terrible threat in history, has taken refuge in ignoring it.
The scientists say there is no defense against atomic weapons. Russia and the West continue their bilateral saber-rattling. Civil Defense offers the choice of sure death or something like a 40 per cent chance for survival. Neither choice is appealing.
The public, firmly convinced there is nothing to be done, takes the only course left open to it: It ignores the threat and goes right on living.
Alan Jones
Death in Chicago
Eighty-seven children and three nuns. Dead.
Hundreds injured.
The fire that gutted Chicago's Our Lady of the Angels school this week is the greatest tragedy among many this year. It was worse than other catastrophes if only because the 87 lives were young lives, 87 untainted futures, 87 family dreams.
The children's lives were as yet uncast. The horror of their deaths and the resulting emptiness of their homes are beyond expression.
Why do we regard a child's death with more concern than an adult's? Simply because a child is precious. He holds within him his precious gift to the world. Most deliver their gifts during their adult lives. Therefore, the loss is greater when a child dies.
Most people feel something of this difference. If the children had been ten years older, their deaths would have caused less anguish to the public's heart. —John Husar
The Policeman's Lot Editor:
We, the public, should hold our tongues for a second before we make even one statement in regard to the man who puts his energy into making our University a better one.
The campus "cop," as he is commonly called, is not overpaid. He puts in many extra hours to make it possible to drive safely to and from a football or basketball game...he stops traffic so a venture across our well-traveled streets is a safe one. When there is an accident, guess who is there with his word of assurance when needed and a reprimand when it is called for.
The patrolmen also make it possible to park on Jayhawk because if they didn't ticket overparked cars there would be no chance for
a visitor or a person needing to park for only half an hour. As the "cop" centures down the street, he meets complaints of all kinds every few feet, but he meets them with manners and if possible, a smile, even if his teeth are gritted.
The policeman is human, so he makes mistakes. But the public forgets this in their estimation of the man and the force he is working for. However, when a policeman makes an error, he pays for it at least three times. He has to answer to his superior, himself, and hardest of all, his reputation and years of hard work lie open for you to tear up in a few sentences. This is done every day, and the public responsible doesn't even feel a pain about it. They know he does nice things, but he does them ALL the time and it's not often they can talk about the mistakes, because he makes very
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibler
few. So when they find a flaw, they pounce on it like a flock of vultures.
we of this University should feel proud that we have such a fine crew of men protecting us in such a capable manner. How about a little praise in comparison with all these tons of complaints.
Patricia Puckett Lawrence freshman
"I HEAR HE'S DATIN' A REAL 'BEAST.'"
Patricia Puckett
'Forget Your Ideals'
Editor;
Thoughts such as those expressed in the article "KU Average Male A Disappointment" are in my opinion dangerous. The secret of living in a world in which competition and variation are so important appears to be the ability to see past the "average" to see the qualities which are closer to the ideal. May I suggest that Miss Hayn try to forget "ideals" and bring her ideas down to the level where she can enjoy life as it is. Individualism is a most precious possession.
Robert Tinker
Robert Tinker Kansas City, Kansas, junior
Editor:
For the Irate
To the irate males screaming about Miss Saundra Hayn's article of Dec. 1 (University Daily Kansas) about the average KU male;
Martha Holmes
Lawrence junior
"Thou dost protest thy innocent too loudly."
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Malcolm Applegate Managing Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Bill Irvine ... Business Manager
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Al Jones ... Editorial Editor
By Gilbert M. Cuthbertson
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THE PEOPLE OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, John Marco Allegro,
Doubleday and Co., $5.
Some of these concepts apparently anticipate early Christian precepts. The Essenes, in fact, trained a special class of men "to go into the wilderness to prepare the way" for the Isaian Messiah. All of these facts present controversial problems for contemporary scholarship.
The Battle of the Scrolls continues with John Marco Allegro's study of The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes. The major controversy no longer concerns the authenticity of the documents but their religious and historical significance and their relationship to early Christianity.
Among the most interesting characteristics of the Essenes, recounted in such ancient sources as Josephus, Philo Judaeus, and Eusebius, are the celebration of a ritualistic bread and wine supper, baptismal practices, stoicism in the face of persecution, and disregard for the worldly. The group thought of itself as a missionary brotherhood of the poor and always wore white garments.
Who were these enigmatic people, the Essenes, unmentioned in the Bible, but apparently ranking with the Sadducees and the Pharisees? John Marco Allegro's pictorial and graphic account of recent discoveries in the Holy Land concerning this sect attempts to clarify this question.
Of course, the difficulties presented by The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls are by no means entirely recent. The first cache of scrolls was discovered in 800 A.D. by a Bedouin shepherd under circumstances similar to those some ten years ago.
"We need not fear to press into the farthest recesses of Christian antiquity, under any notion that we are prying into forbidden secrets or carrying a torch into shades consecrated to mystery. For, wherever it is not meant that we should raise the veil, there shall we carry our torch in vain."
It is well also to recall the essay of Thomas De Quincey, entitled "The Essenes":
The illustrated section of Allegro's book contains an excellent series of photographic plates. Included are illustrations of many artifacts and household utensils as well as the unique copper scrolls, purporting to locate an almost Croesean treasure.
Also depicted are the buildings of the community at Qumran, where the serolls were uncovered, as the scriptorium, where the many commentaries, psalms, apocryphal and Biblical books were transcribed. Allegro supplements these scenes with background photographs of the desolation by the Dead Sea.
From the archaeological evidence collected in Allegro's book, the daily life and manners, communal customs, and religious ceremonies and beliefs which developed in the Essene community a few years prior to the birth of Christ, can be reconstructed by the lay reader.
Allegro's work penetrates some of the darkest recesses of the Qumran caves with photographic flashbulbs. Yet the reader is even more impressed by the suggestion of information, undiscovered and unrevealed, concerning the Essenes, The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
COLLEGE MOTEL
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