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Show Kathleen Norris Says: v J-, To Our Undying Shame j v Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. "There is going to be a bad time for the mothers and sweethearts and friends who have to answer their question, You gave blood, didn't you?' with an em barrassed 4 Well, no, didn't darling.'" By KATHLEEN NORRIS A FEW days ago I was in a group of young women who were gathering wraps and parcels as they dispersed dis-persed after a club luncheon. "How many of you," I asked them casually, "have been to the blood bank lately?" Latelyl Out of 13 of them, only one had ever been, and that more than a year ago. These were healthy young women, busy, of course, burdened bur-dened with responsibility for homes, kitchen, babies, school-age children, chil-dren, to be sure. But not so burdened, bur-dened, not so busy but what this confession of theirs constitutes the most terrible indictment that American Ameri-can women ever have had to face. It constitutes the most shameful reproach that after-war memories will ever bring us, a shame never to be forgotten and never to be wiped out; that the Red Cross and the medical corps have to beg us lor this life-giving blood, and that m refuse it. My own blood burns when I think of it, and I wonder how we will explain it to the returned sol-diers sol-diers someday; how we can ever be happy again knowing that magnificent magnifi-cent young lives have been sacrificed sacri-ficed because we, safe and warm and well-fed and free from fear, just never gave a thought to the blood bank. "Oh, I've meant to, and Marcia and I talked about It," these young women said cheerfully, "but it's so hard to get around these days. We were going to, remember, Jean? ) And then we didn't! Oh, yes, the ' blood bank. That's wonderful, isn't it? Mother says they didn't have it in the last war, and that thousands thou-sands of lives were lost. Do let's try to get to it this Veek, or sometime." Marines Attack. The day before this conversation I had happened to see a movie reel of our marines taking possession of a tropical beachhead, as they have done so often. Past the camera flashed the line of young faces, as the heavy boots squelched in the mud and fixed bayonets glinted in the fast-falling rain. Such fine, strong faces, earnest and trusting and hard with the desperate courage cour-age and resolution of the attack. And even as we looked this splendid vigorous body and that one fell in the swamp, never to walk again in the pride and confidence of youth! Our boys have seen grim sights in these war years, they have suffered suf-fered all the agonies to which human hu-man flesh is heir. They have seen children mad with hunger, and dead with hunger; seen homeless thousands of women and old people seeking despairingly for food and shelter. They have seen their own '? .'nds fall and die, or carried awry on stretchers, moaning, bloody, inhuman wreckage. They have known homesickness more bitter bit-ter than death; known months, not hours or days, of loneliness and doubt. To have these men pick up a paper from home and read that the Red Cross must solicit donations of the life-giving stream that alone will bring some of them home, is intolerable, in-tolerable, and we ought not to tolerate tol-erate it! In every gathering of men and women at men's luncheon clubs, women's club meetings, lecture halls, movie theaters, indeed in the actual churches, why doesn't the chairman or speaker ask those who have contributed life to our dying men to raise their hands? Or bettor bet-tor yet, ask those who have not given their blood to the white- ' Yli iSYfif f1JVh Yr- , YY m: "Healthy young women." THEY NEED YOUR BLOOD We have all heard, over and over, that blood plasma, administered ad-ministered on the battlefield and in emergency hospitals, is saving thousands of lives. In this war less than three per cent of the woinded die as compared with six or seven per cent in the last war. Blood plasma and whole blooc ad' ministrations are responsible to a large degree for this great saving of young lives. But this blood has to come from healthy human beings. As the tempo of battle increases, in-creases, greater and greater quantities are needed. The Red Cross is asking and pleading constantly for more donations not of money, but of blood. After every victory there is a tendency on the home front-to front-to sloio down. This is true of bond buying, of war plant production, pro-duction, of donations to the blood bank. On the far-flung fronts, hoivever, there is still urgent need for blood plasma and will be until the last hat tie is fought. Keep on giving! giv-ing! faced, bleeding boys in the service serv-ice hospitals, please to stand? II ought to be the first topic of conversation con-versation wherever men and women wom-en gather together: "Have you been to the blood bank lately?" 'White Feather' Emblem. And why not a white feather for the lapel of every man's and woman's wom-an's suit who chooses to ignore this appeal? Surely if they are not shamed already the mere wearing of this sign of cowardice wouldn't hurt them? There isn't half enough fuss being made about all this We have an emblem that means "I gave my blood" that hundreds are proud to wear. Why not another an-other emblem meaning "I didn't pay the slightest attention to the faci that for the men who are shed-I shed-I ding their blood for me sometimes some-times every drop of it, I didn't do anything in return. I knew what plasma is, I knew the miracles it works on the far-away battle stations, sta-tions, but we really haven't anything any-thing to be afraid of here, so why worry?" Remember, you American men and women, our boys are going to come home an embittered and disillusioned dis-illusioned lot. What they have had to endure is cruelly upsetting to mind and morale. For many months after honorable discharge we will have to give them special treatment; treat-ment; comforting, bracing, rebuilding re-building souls and bodies. There is going to be a bad time then for the mothers and sweethearts and friends who have to answer their question, "You gave blood, didn't you?" with an embarrassed "Well, no, I didn't, darling. I thought that there would be so many others that my poor little pint wouldn't mean much, and somehow I never got around to it." There is still time to save yourself your-self that shame. For God's sake, and for the sake of humanity, do it today. Don't ever let anyone feel again the sting I felt when a young naval doctor wrote me from Guadalcanal Guadal-canal to ask the caustic question: "Do you suppose that if they offered two red points a pint some of the men and women at home would get busy at the blood bank?" Decorating with Pictures Hang pictures at eye level, if possible pos-sible without cords showing and flat against the wall. Under an important impor-tant picture place a substantial piece of furniture. Assemble your family photographs, simply framed, in large groups in your bedroom. Be sure the store you've chosen to do your framing knows its job, for the value of a signed picture can be ruined by too close trimming. Choose simple frames so that the 1 frames will not compete in interest with the pictures themselves. |
