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Show Emerson once said, "every time I write a beautiful beauti-ful thought, it makes my whole day." That may not be an exact quote, but it's close enough. -0- As television enters its third decade of mass popularity, pop-ularity, we often wonder who will be the poets, the authors, the writers of tomorrow. We now have two generations genera-tions of youth who have grown up with television as the most obvious, omniscient media. Are we raising generations gen-erations of semi -illiterates who can't read, or don't read, and rely solely upon the interpretation in-terpretation of tv comen-tators, comen-tators, to know what is going go-ing on in the world. -0- This thought came to me last week as we assisted the local Lions Club to collect paper for recycling. A worthy project, and one that is proving very successful. The reason for this thought was that almost 100of those who bothered to save their newspapers and magazines, bundle them and curb them for the Lions were over forty years of age. -0- That's when the thought occurred to me don't young people read any more? The second thought was, can young people read anymore? Next, of course, came the memory of the meetings and organizations which carry on much of the good works of a community. Young people are not taking their rightful right-ful place in carrying on the functions of society. -0- How many organizations in Milford and Beaver County are carrying on with a bunch of old timers who can had-ly had-ly mount the stairs to attend at-tend meetings. They carry on only to preserve what they know is the backbone of society. It is these organizations, civic, religious re-ligious . and fraternal, that have provided for many of the needs of communities bigand small. -0-- For instance, there would not be street signs, parks, paved streets, churches, art, Easter egg hunts, and so many of the things we take for granted without these organizations. or-ganizations. Through their civic and public spirited efforts ef-forts they have either provided pro-vided these niceties or have spearheaded drives to get them accomplished. -0- Has tv spirited away our youth made crotchety oldsters old-sters out of them, without ever having let them take their place in society? Has television so obscured the written word that our scholars works will sit, ' moldy and dusty, on shelves awaiting interpretation by electronic media? Will the millions of books become only ornaments for the book shelves of the fam -ily room? -0- Of course you say, our youngsters learn to read in school. They can read if they want to. But will a child who never had the joy of reading for himself, Steinback's "Grapes of Wrath", ever know the compassion of an old man suckling the breast of a young mother to keep from starving. James Mlchener's "Hawaii", "Ha-waii", already has provided material for six different movies, and could cover the wide screen with at least a dozen more. -0- We will always have the gifted who write, those who achieve success in spite of their environment. And, there will always be those who purchase books because be-cause it's the thing to do. The status symbol of success. suc-cess. But, how far is the day when we no longer have people peo-ple who read. We all know those who turn first to the sports, the comics and Ann Landers. -0- We've no quarrel with any of those. Everyone should glance over the sensational stories on page one but don't overlook page four and the editorial section, where (Continued on Page 2) HERE'S MORE ABOl'T JUST BETWEEN the life blood of the country and the world are spilled spill-ed out In depth every day. -0- They say you can tell a lot about a person from his garbage. gar-bage. You can tell a lot about a person by what he reads. What can you say about a person who doesn't or can't read? -0- The Lions do appreciate those who set their papers out for collection. They'll continue to pick them up every third Wednesday. If by chance you're missed, call the COUNTY NEWS or drop them off at the old jail. Meanwhile, we'll be watching to see what the under -40 crowd are reading. |