The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, November 15, 1962, page 8 (of 64)

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In My Opinion PTA Is Fine, If You're So Inclined

By LORETTA FLAHERTY Correspondent I refuse to feel un-American, or a delinquent parent because I do not attend PTA meetings. They are not for me. Let those who enjoy them take part. I hold no quarrel with these dedicated souls. However, I deeply resent the letters I receive advising me that if I do not attend P.T.A., I do not have the welfare of my children at heart. There are five children in this household. Four of them attend four different schools. It is almost impossible to keep up with the demands of these four schools. I no longer attempt it. The children arrive at school on time, properly attired. Their fees, including P.T.A. membership, are paid on demand. Their scholastic averages run from straight A to C. If one child is absent the school is promptly notified. When a conference with a teacher is necessary I arrive on time, keep to the subject and leave directly. The teacher is busy and so am I. I am available for field trips, as a chaperone for parties, dances and proms and cafeteria duty. If this makes for disinterest on my part in the welfare of my children then I plead guilty. The old saw "if everybody felt that way there would be no P.T.A., does not prick my conscience in the least. It is evident, by the fabulous growth of P.T.A., since I stopped attending, that everyone does not feel as I do. So please, Madam Secretaries of the various P.T.A.'s, refrain from trying to intimidate me with your letters. To each his own. Let the powers that be, concern themselves with the welfare of P.T.A. and leave the problem of my childrens' welfare where it belongs — to me.

'Fail Safe' Too Improbable

(Editor's note: The author of the following review is a Miami businessman who also is a member of the Government Research Council.) By RICHARD HIGGINS It is perhaps phenomenal that a Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard Doctor of Philosophy could, in careful cooperation, write a book which contains such an abundance of scientific and technological inaccuracies political improbabilities and military assininites as Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler have packed into their joint labor, "Fail Safe," (McGraw-Hill). It is even more phenomenal that, in spite of a near record high density of these per pound of book, "Fair Safe" is capable of keeping the reader glued to the plot like an eight-year-old on a roller coaster. The reader will find it difficult to get off the roller coaster as the bomber wing, on a "routine" alert approaches and flies past its fail safe point loaded with accidental nuclear destruction for Moscow. However, after putting the book down at the end of the last chapter, one may do a double take and suffer a slight chill as he realizes that the political improbabilities are all too possible, that the military assininities are all too probable and that the scientific inaccuracies are not important to the Burdick-Wheeler message which comes through "five by five." "Fail Safe" takes us in for a closer look at the modern politico-military world in crisis: a world in which devastating decisions are made in seconds by humans and in micro-seconds by electronic machines. The book is a harrowing reminder of the fantastic destructive capabilities which were lately almost within range of Dr. Castro's itching fingertips, and those which remain poised over us like an outsized sword of Damocles on a thread which seems to be continuously unraveling. As the minutes and the seconds tick off and the crisis grows like the mushroom clouds it eventually produces, the dialogues are almost entirely between political and military brass encased in concrete cubicles deep in the earth below Washington, Omaha, Moscow and Kiev. The lives of the people who paid for the big show with their taxes continue uninterrupted and innocently unaware until the final split second. It reminded this reader of a particularly penetrating admonition of Eleanor Roosevelt to the effect that "people do not make war; only governments make war," and posed the question: "When science can dictate and politicians understand that he who makes war does so on the pain of certain and immediate death, will it become obsolete as an extension of political procedure? Time was when politicians could sacrifice 10 per cent of their people or even 20 per cent of their people to a political ambition. However, as the percentage approaches 100 per cent, reluctance has a tendency to increase. As the war monger approaches the muzzle of the loaded gun, he tends to become a pacifist.

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What the Peace Corps Boss Thinks of It All

By JOSEPHINE RIPEY (Reprinted from Christian Science Monitor)-agate WASHINGTON— You can't tell robert Sargent Shriver Jr., Peace Corps director, that Americans are soft. His young Peace Corps volunteers were pushed off the deep end, as it were — and they swan. Admitting to a National Press Club audience that he was not exactly enthusiastic about taking the job when tapped for it by his brother-in law, the President, Mr. Shriver on Thursday said: He believes that Peace Corps members are going to be very much in demand on their return by the foreign service and private industry. He has already had inquiries from big, well-known business firms asking, "When will these people be available to us?" The great majority of the Peace Corps are teachers. Nearly 300 are serving as secondary school teachers in Ethiopia. On their arrival, the country's secondary school enrollment was doubled overnight. He does not see the Peace Corps as a permanent thing, although he thinks it will last "a long time." As for his own plans (it has been rumored that he may become head of the Agency for International Development), he "has no present intention to leave the corps," but hopes some day in the future "to come back here."

-- ADVERTISEMENT -- HUSBAND DRINK TOO MUCH?

(a personal message from Gardnar Mulloy) Of course he does if he's a drinker. Everyone is doing things to excess lately. The world situation, business ups and downs, advancing middle age: what's more relaxing in the early evening than a shaker of Manhattans? What else is there after a long tough day when you're beat? Why not stop off for a few with the boys? There are two good reasons why Dad should begin to cut down or at least start later in the evening. One: liquor prices are going up, and two: excessive drinking isn't particularly healthy. My answer to the problem is extraordinarily simple; — and what a treat for his body! (the only one he'll ever get) Have him stop off at my southwest club every evening for a drink with the boys (Crystal Springs Water). He'll unwind with a hand massage that's both relaxing and invigorating. Or his cares will float away in our dry or wet steam facilities. He'll laugh and perk up playing table tennis or paradise tennis: or maybe a fencing lesson. He'll be home an hour later, but he'll feel like a new person. He'll drink less because he feels so much better. He might even want to take you back to the club for the evening dance lessons! The icing on this cake is that he'll enjoy the best deep sleep he's had in a long time. Sound like fun? It is! Call me anytime at 661-4228. One of our membership committee will be happy to send you a membership application. P.S. The same program works for you girls and we are a family club open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. seven days a week. (don't worry about our membership: a lot of them are teetotalers like me).

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