Page Two THE TWIG December 14, 1945 Newspaper of Students, Meredith College Dear Editor: Member Pissocided CoUe6iale Press EDITORIAL STAFF Jewell Eatman Editor Florine Olive Managing Editor Elizabeth Davis Associate Editor Mable Summers Associate Editor Ruth Franklin Associate Editor Marilynn Ferrell Feature Editor Frances Wallace Photo Editor Elizabeth Sawyer Columnist Betsy Jean Holt Music Editor Ruth Martin Sports Editor Reporters—-Ruth Hall, Ann Hood Hughes, Norma Cartwright, Hilda Austin, Mary Humphreye, Stella Lassiter, Mary Alice Turner, and Clarice Woolard. Typists—Myra Teague, Jerry Miller, Olema Olive, Jean Trentman, and Bette Linney. BUSINESS STAFF Martha Hamrick Business Manager Mary Martin Advertising Manager Alice Delbridge Circulation Manager Frances Watkins-.Ass’t Circulation Manager Members of Business Staff—Margaret Wil son, Emily Hine, and Doris Moore. Entered as second-class matter October 11, 1923, •t postoffice at Raleigh. N. C.. under Act of March S, 1879. Published Semi-monthly during the months of October, November. February, March. April and May; monthly during the months of September, December and January. Subscription rate, $2.00 per year to students. Alumnae membership associational fee $2.00, of which $1.00 covers a year's subscription. Thought for the day . . . “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2 :14. LetN Celebrate Christmas! The Christmas angel can sing her song of peace in peace this year, now that actual war has ceased. A more respon sive audience will be hers than ever before—the whole wide world, hungry for “Peace on earth; good will to men.” Yet only in the way this audience re sponds to the song in the actual celebra tion of Christmas will its meaning come true. Too many tithes in the past, Christ mas has lost its real meaning in the gaiety of receiving presents, the tink ling of sleigh bells, the sparkling of the Christmas lights, the singing of carols without meaning, and in the countless festivities where the Christ Child could never gain admittance. We make the celebration of Christ mas what it is, not by the actions of the few weeks before, but by the things we do from one Christmas to the next. A person can not be changed on Christ mas Eve to a peace-loving person if he has not had peace in his heart before. If Christmas this year is going to be what most people think a celebration is—just a big time, then there will be no Christmas at all. Looking at the dic tionary meanings of celebration, we find the secret to Christmas. The first mean ing given is to honor or observe. At Christmas-time that is the real purpose, to honor and observe Christ’s birthday in our own hearts; to forget self and let Christ be guest of honor. Another mean ing is, to perform publicly and with ap propriate rites. In this day, money is flowing rather freely. Some people are becoming spendthrifts while millions are begging for bread. The Christmas tree and gifts should not be done away with; but they should be appropriate to the conditions of today. Lavishness should be abolished. Simplicity should be the keynote. Perhaps the most meaningful defini tion of celebration is, to proclaim and publish abroad. When the angel came to the shepherds on that first Christmas, he said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.” Therefore the joy we receive at Christmas must be spread to every nation. Unless we pro claim Christ from the poorest servant in America to the loneliest refugee, there can never be “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” A true Christmas celebration this year will mean more toward the bring ing of this lasting peace than the passing of any bill in congress or the decision coming from any conference. Let’s rieally celebrate Christmas! Student discussions in chapel are a vital part of our Student Government, if we are going to call ours a student government. However, there is one phase of this provision that hampers more and freer discussions, i.e., the presence of faculty and administrative members in chapel on student days. We have no desire to keep what goes on in these student discussions a secret, for that is where at least a part of our failure lies now, but the very presence of certain supervisors prevents true and unrestrained statements by the students regarding their views on the topic under discussion. The views expressed by stu dents in a critical or questioning spirit will probably not be soon forgotten or forgiven. Is this the way it ought to be? Name withheld. Dear Editor: We got absolutely nowhere this past Thursday in chapel when talking about the chapel programs. The same thing happened in our hall meeting Friday night, but I found out one thing—the students do have control over the chapel programs, so the hall proctor said. How ever, whether anything will be done about them or not is another story. The students at Meredith do not ask for a great many changes to be made. I wonder why? It seems to me that the reason for it is because so often what we do request is considered “bad judg ment,” or casually thrown aside with, “They don’t know what they want.” We sincerely enjoyed the program so cleverly presented by Mrs. Freeman, Friday. That’s what we need—some thing alive, exciting and appealing. But it isn’t necessary to go outside school the few times we have guest speakers. I know we enjoy—to a certain extent— the few guest speakers we have had in the past and we appreciate the effort made to induce them to come, but why not use some of our own talent? The school spirit about which Meredith Col lege knows absolutely nothing would be greatly benefited if we would resort to our own campus—look around us to see and use the talent we have. What a thrill it would be to listen to Mr. Rembert talk on Modern Art. We would submit to our primitive instinct while Dr. F. G. Yeandle beat out some boogie woogie on the piano. A voice re cital by Miss Donley would enrapture us; Dr. Cannady’s “Math Magic” would fascinate us; we would be moved while listening to an organ recital by Dr. Cooper; spellbound by Dr. McCurdy’s stirring poetry; bewitched by a modern We students today are living in a world unlike one ever faced by students before. Therefore, we cannot settle our problems by using former solutions as an example. Of course, we can still evaluate former solutions in construct ing our own similar ones, but we must face the fact that our age is literally dif ferent from all others. We have to learn, and learn fast, that problem the world has tried for generations to overlook— the problem of how to get along with our neighbor, which now includes the world. This sounds all high and mighty, away off on the other side of the world, and something we will never really be called upon to practice, but it isn’t. You face it everyday and ignore, or label it some thing else. It is easier glibly to agree with the liberalist that we should all be brothers than it is to be seen by your classmates with someone “below” your social scale. If her standards are lower than yours, and if you believe yours are right, is it harder for you to help her bring her standard to yours than for you to lower yourself to hers? And she dance recital by Mrs. Rembert; de lighted by a talk on Shakespeare’s life and works by Dr. Harris; interested in a history of jitterbug by Miss Peterson. We would enjoy a recital by Mr. Stewart Pratt at the piano and Miss Rosenburger at the violin. Mr. Dorset! talking about his work at the Mental Hygiene Clinic and Miss Whitmer telling about her ex periences in China, we should like. And the movies Mr. Satterfield takes— we hear so much about them and never see them. Then too, we would appre ciate our own Choir and Glee Club if we ever heard them once awhile. And why not programs by individual stu dents. These are only a few suggestions and some of you may think these programs vary too much. Jumping from a classi cal program of music to one of boogie woogie or from the life of Shakespeare to the history of jitterbug, covers large areas of taste, but the taste of the stu dents varies. It is impossible to please everybody at once we know, but it would be a step toward the happiness of all if we could be pleased, semi- pleased, most of the time rather than once in awhile. Some of the teachers have told us that we could have the kind of chapel programs we want if we would demand them. This is a demand for better chapel programs. Faithful Chapel Attender. Happy Holiday Hopes Evelyn Kocher: “I dare say that if I plan to do much more than sleep late. I’ll never do it.” Ruth Summerlin: “Most of all, I plan to be at HOME.” Margaret Dover: “My husband is home—need I say more?” Mary Virginia Warren: “My plans for Christmas are numerous, but among them are sleep, eat, and enjoy being home again.” “Goat” Holcomb: “My plans for Christmas include those old favorites of sleeping and eating. Also, my plans are going to be connected with that cer tain guy in Winston-Salem.” Martha Jones: “I’ll dream of July 4 1947.” Margie Perry: “I want to lose those ten pounds I’ve gained.” Frances Simpson: “I’m going to have a grand time waiting for Santa Claus.” Kathleen Isbell: “I intend to ‘visit’ with my family.” Mary G. Turner: “Are you kidding? —eat! sleep! play!—eat! sleep! play.— eat! etc., etc.!!!!!” Charlotte Bowman: “Eat, sleep, and practice piano, of course!” Angelea Hatch: “No especially ex citing plans in view for Christmas, but gosh, I’m excited just the same.” Meredith Liles: “Just plan to take it easy.” Ann Wallis: “My plans?—Hmmmm!” Doris Harris: “Just thinking about Santa is so exciting I forget all my plans.” Ruth Vande Kieft: “Enjoy Christmas, write two term papers, and pray fever ishly for snow.” Eleanor Lockamy: “My plans? Good ness, I can’t think of anything better than being home!” “Sunny” Bellamy: “ ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’ sounds heavenly—no kid ding!” Gloria Mayer: “Spend two days going home and two days coming back, with one long, joyful rest in between trains.” Helen Wallis: “I plan to sleep half the time and have as big a time as pos sible the rest of the time.” Joan Drake: “See Gene and have fun.” Vicky Manty : “I’m going home to cover myself with snow for a long two weeks’ nap.” Evelyn Pitman: “I’m going back to Virginia and let ‘other people’ wait on me.” Doris Moore: “I’m going to Elm City and date Thomas—if he gets home.” Becky Ballentine: “Eat and miss Jack.” Carolyn Lockamy: “Eat, sleep, and be merry!” Mary Bowen: “I plan to make up for all (no, not lost) time!! (in every way).” Hazel Ellington: “I’m going to stay at home most of the time and see the folks, but most of all I’m going to dream of a future Christmas and live over another one past!” Sue Jarvis: “I’m going to spend two glorious weeks catching up on sleep and gossip.” Billie Hart: “Ah-ha! Who knows!” Pollyanna Langston: “I’m going to sleep until noon every morning to make up for getting up at four a.m.” Lib Farr: “I’m going to make my way to Greenville, S. C., as soon as possible and paint the town. might have something you can use too, if it is nothing more than a strengthen ing of your own conviction. It is easier to say we have religious freedom than to say to someone of a different faith, yes, your religion also has its points, without harboring a slight feeling of ill will. It is easier to say we should feed the world than it is to continue ration ing our helping of meat and sugar. It is easier to say we need world law, than it is to give up something our country wants for the benefit of another. It is easier to say that scientific research has proved that individuals differ in every thing, than it is not to expect the same results from everyone. It is these petty, everyday problems that we cannot face tolerantly, and until these prejudices are so forgotten that we do not even think of them at all, much less as problems, can we success fully tackle the world problems. We each have the problem before us and we each know how far along the line of tolerance we have progressed, so first we need a personal solution, right? It seems to me that this would come in honestly trying to be open-minded and objective in all our controversial con tacts, and even with ourselves. One of the main things college has shown me is that so many of the things I thought I knew were false. This was a shock to me; and at first, I wouldn’t accept the new idea, but I found that the professors could prove their conceptions while mine were only transmitted by the winds. I didn’t have to give up every thing though; many of my convictions were true, but I did have to weigh each one from every angle before I could accept it or expect someone else to. In the same way, we cannot con demn anyone for his actions until we understand the forces playing on him that are responsible for those actions. They are always there and would affect us in much the same way were we in the identical situation. It is only with such open-minded, tolerant people that this great world problem can ever be tackled success fully. With the exception of a few, the older people of today are too steeped in the drug of tradition and prejudice to make any change in attitude at all. But these few have faith in us and have left the challenge with us. We cannot solve the problem at once, but we can start by developing tolerant attitudes and actions ourselves, and by passing them to our children and their children. We know that it has at least dawned upon the world that this is what it has needed since its birth—the brotherhood of man—but not until now, when the world finds itself in the dangerous posi tion of possible destruction, have we dared face it, and much as we’d like to, we can’t put it off any longer. It is the biggest challenge ever presented a peo ple and it is you to whom it is given. Dare we let it pass? EXCHANGING” “Stand back of your lover, false woman,” shouted the Scotchman as he discovered his wife in the arms of another man. “I’m going to shoot both of you.” The Virginia Tech. “A wedding limousine rolled up Fifth Avenue a few weeks ago with a large placard tied to the bumper. It read, “Careless talk caused this!” Hornet. “Smile that way again.” She blushed and dimpled sweetly. “Just as I thought—you look like a chipmunk.” Rammer-Jammer. Little Willie, dressed in sashes. Fell in the fire and was burned to ashes. By and by the room grew chilly But no one wanted to poke poor Willie. The Technique. Would you say that a bachelor is a man who won’t take “yes” for an answer? Birds do it. Bees do it. Bats do it. Mama, can I take Flying lessons, too? “If you talk about your troubles And tell them o’er and o’er The world will think you like ’em And proceed to give you more ” ; :■ i '

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