Watching the World

School “War Zone”

· A new U.S. Senate report says that there is “clear and compelling evidence that violence and vandalism in the schools has reached a level of crisis that demands immediate” action. One senator noted that a survey of hundreds of U.S. schools produced a “ledger of violence confronting our schools that reads like a casualty list from a war zone or a vice squad annual report.” The report adds: “Our schools are experiencing . . . brutal assaults on teachers and students as well as rapes, extortions, burglaries, thefts and an unprecedented wave of wanton destruction and vandalism.”

‘What They Want’

· After all the evidence and warnings about the hazards of smoking, only two low-tar and low-nicotine cigarette brands now sell among the top twenty. Why? “Full flavor is what people want, and that’s what [we are] going to give them,” answers one giant tobacco company’s chairman. Nearly $62-million worth of advertising for the two main brands of so-called “full flavor” cigarettes are scheduled to flood over the U.S. public soon in a shift from the former emphasis on low-tar and low nicotine brands.

Truly Rehabilitated

· U.S. News & World Report recently discussed the controversial idea of “furloughing” prison convicts to give them a “trial run” in society before they are freed. Of one such convict, serving a life sentence, it said: “Because of his good record . . . [the prisoner] has been allowed furloughs so often he can’t count the number.” What has contributed to his “good record”? The article notes that he “has become a devout Jehovah’s Witness.”

Common Catechism

· The widely discussed Common Catechism was produced jointly by 36 noted Catholic and Protestant theologians. Common ground is found between the religions on a number of points, but, “admittedly,” it says, “the way to unanimity on certain questions is not yet in sight.” However, one point the scholars were unanimous on is that “we can learn virtually nothing” from the Bible on the specifics of sexual morality. Yet the Bible plainly states: “You must not commit adultery” and that neither “fornicators” nor “men who lie with men” will live in God’s new order. Is that not specific?

Tower Tilt Slows

· In Italy, Pisa’s 177-foot-high twelfth-century tower now leans about 18 feet from vertical. However, the commission responsible to stop the tilt recently reported that last year’s lean was less than that of 1973. The 1974 tilt, though, was greater than the average of the previous ten years. A contest that began in 1972 for ways to stabilize the tower ended last year with none of the fourteen ideas submitted judged to be acceptable.

Why Priests in Black?

· Why do Catholic priests dress in black? One, Andrew Greeley, presents an interesting answer in his U.S. newspaper column: “Take the matter of clerical garb. Do you remember what the significance of black is? It stands for death. The black robes got started with the idea that the good cleric should go through life wearing his own shroud, so that he would never forget about death. Strange way for people to behave who are supposed to preach to others about abundant life and who are called ‘celebrants’ in some traditions . . . Clothes, of course, do not make the person—nor the religion. They are merely a symptom of a deplorable human tendency to turn good news into bad, life into death, vitality into dullness, and joy into creepiness.”

Outward Appearance

· How much effect does one’s appearance have on the way others view one? A recent University of Wisconsin study found that college graduates over six feet tall began their careers earning 12.4 percent more than was earned by shorter graduates. Glasses make a difference too. Test subjects at the University of British Columbia were given brief views of the same (unknown to them) persons with and without horn-rimmed glasses. In all but one case they rated the ones with the glasses as more intelligent. And at the University of Maryland, subjects reviewed criminal cases along with photographs of the defendants. The unattractive defendants would have received harsher sentences from these “judges.”

Familiar Surroundings

· A long-playing album that records a mother’s heartbeat and other sounds from inside her womb is selling briskly in Japan. When it was played on television in both Japan and Britain, parents reported a soothing effect on their newborn babies. The Japanese doctor who developed the recording claims that in his tests the sounds stopped 403 infants from crying in an average of 41 seconds. Over a third went to sleep. The sounds were said to be effective for about the first two months of an infant’s life.

Tongues of Death

· Speaking in tongues is regarded by certain sects as evidence of God’s spirit. According to the Bible, there was a time when that was true, and for a purpose. But is the same true today? In a recent notorious murder case, an Englishman reportedly brutally murdered his wife. Court testimony at the trial revealed that last fall the man had begun attending a group where speaking in tongues was practiced. After doing so himself, “within a few days he changed completely” from his former mild manner, reports London’s Daily Express. The Bible shows that a murderous spirit comes, not from God, but from the Devil.—John 8:44; 1 John 3:10-12.

Nudes in Church

· Pastor Stuart Coles of Toronto’s Bathurst Street United Church viewed a play running in the church’s former sanctuary. During the play “eight cast members strip repeatedly and simulate various sex acts,” reports the Calgary Herald. But pastor Coles approved the play, saying, “It’s my personal opinion that this is a brave, but preliminary, partial examination of the sick side of our society.” Former moderator of the United Church of Canada, N. Bruce McLeod, agrees: ‘What difference does nudity make as long as the performers are trying to make a valid point?’

“Private” Police

· ‘The average citizen now has more personal contact with the private security guard than with publicly supported police officers,’ contends a New York criminal justice researcher. And a U.S. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration official says that “studies have shown there is more money being spent annually on private security than on police.”

Rising Crime

· Crime rose 15 percent in larger cities in the U.S. last year. But, as residents of many of those cities can attest, that is simply an average figure. Thus Tulsa, Oklahoma, experienced a staggering 29-percent increase in crime during 1974 over 1973.

Two Masters

· The Times Journal of Manila, in the Philippines, recently interviewed a local Catholic priest about the apparent reconciliation of the local pagan occultism with his church. Monsignor Etruiste of Quiapo Parish House said that his toleration of the people’s “serving two masters at the same time” parallels the Church’s own attitude. “I myself see these people coming out from their novenas and going straight to the ‘manghuhula [fortune-tellers],’” he said, adding: “I myself have a number of books dealing on the occult sciences.”

Roman Vipers

· The migration of Italian farmers to the city is said to be a factor in the growth of numbers of vipers in uninhabited areas around Rome. How? The abodes of the vipers are no longer periodically destroyed by plowing and hoeing, nor are the farm animals that normally kept their numbers down any longer there. Many Romans are said to want antivenom serum on hand in case of a viper visit. New Scientist magazine says that the government is now working to get rid of the creatures.

Attracting Corruption

· Not all the damage from cigarettes is to one’s health. Cigarette smuggling attracts criminals to huge profits with little risk. Why? The marketing director for one of the largest firms says, “Where the cigarettes go after we sell them is somebody else’s problem.” And Business Week reports that this attitude “is one that is commonly shared by most law enforcement agencies, the tobacco companies, and the consumer.” Smugglers purchase the cigarettes in tobacco-growing states that have a low cigarette tax and transport them to high-tax states. The difference is said to bring over $20,000 profit for a truckload.

Cancer Costs

· It now reportedly costs more than seven billion dollars a year to treat cancer victims in the U.S. This is more than ten times the amount spent on cancer research. There are about 1,300,000 persons with the disease in the nation.

Gliding Hazards

· Hang gliding is rapidly becoming extremely popular. Fliers, hanging onto kites, ride the air currents. The sport has grown from 200 American devotees in 1972 to 11,000 now, and kites are being sold at the rate of 1,000 per month. At a meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, Dr. Arthur E. Ellison recently advised of its dangers. The state of California alone averages one death a month. One treatment center there has six paraplegic patients injured by gliding accidents. The doctor suggests that safety controls be established where none now exist.

VD ‘Rampages’

· “Sex diseases,” says The Bulletin of Australia, are “on the rampage again.” The report notes that, according to current research, there are at least 13 sexually transmitted diseases and that their “rate of spread is reaching alarming proportions. . . . Gradually, then very suddenly, the venereal, sex-transmitted diseases gained a foothold. Now they are ravaging the world at an even more alarming rate than in the pre-penicillin era. Gonorrhoea is considered to be well out of control in several countries.”

TV and School

· A survey of 1,500 Australian pupils from 5 to 12 years of age revealed that “the more they watch [television] the more their progress at school suffers,” reports the West Australian of Perth. The students spent an average of five hours a day in front of the TV and some were spending up to 11 hours a day. Failure to develop basic reading skills at home and to practice what they were taught in school was said to be a factor in their low achievements.

Draft Change

· The U.S. Selective Service System’s requirement for a man to register for the draft within a month of his eighteenth birthday was abolished on April 1. Now all men born in a given year will be required to register during just one brief period each year. The dates are to be announced later this year. When the induction system was replaced by the volunteer army, it was feared that many men would either unintentionally or purposely forget to register. However, the Selective Service System director reports that more 18-year-olds registered last year than were believed to be alive.

Fallout Status

· The United Nations reports that strontium 90 and cesium 137, widely publicized radioactive contaminants from nuclear weapons testing, are at their lowest level in almost 20 years. However, another isotope, iodine 131, which shows up in milk, is on the increase world wide.