Evening star., 1944-12-01
This and That
By Charles Z. Trace1Deu.
SECOND STREET


Dear Sir:
Your column Is most interesting in
a world of war. Birds and flowers and
growing things add refreshing touch
to our lives, when we are surrounded by
murder, hate and greed.
God grant that it may soon end and
we may again enjoy world of peace.
Thanking you, am
Sincerely, H. r. B.,
Teacher, Special Classes"
The Talmud says that there are but
As righteous men for whose sake the
world Is preserved.
All the rest of them, then-what are
they doing?
Why. they are out fighting, etc 1t has
been going on long time, and from the
present look Of things it looks as If it
always would 60 on.
The ancients did not believe, literally
we feel sure. that there were just As or
any other particular number of persons
for whose sake God preserves the world.
What they must have meant, I'M
doubtedly, was that the number of the
unr1ghteous far surpasses the number of
godly at any one given time and place,
or through all time and space
1t is because of the good, then, if we
follow the ancients, that everything is
kept going
The undoubtedly wicked men and
wicked things in which life abounds are
scarcely worth keeping this stupendous
universe in being for. 1t is mighty
task, however one looks at it. We know
what infinite pains and amounts of
materials and money it takes to build
and maintain just one bombing plane.
The upkeep of the world, alone out of
the universe, would scarcely be worth
while just for the continuance of pain
and misery, slaughter and deceit, lying
and slander, and the thousand and one
foolish vagaries of the human mind
which abound in this as in every age.
Many men have dreamed of Utopias,
and none has ever found one. We will
go right on dreaming, but the chances
are, If we can believe the past, that we
will be disappointed.
Is there no hope, then? The dream
of the ages has been for peace, because
every one, even the most ignorant and
bloodthirsty, has seen in wiser moments
that warfare is both suicidal and silly
Man can work but gropingly for peace,
as he has worked for every other good
thing. The best we can do is to try
again. We may achieve no Utopia, but
we may get results, plant the feet of the
peoples of the world one step higher
toward the eternal goal.
In the meantime, let the good people,
even though forced to war, hold fast to
their goodness. Let us then be proud
whatever their nationality, of their
dreams and aspirations, and their little
portion of human goodness.
We may all be related to the righteous
men for whose sake the world is pre-
served.
We may have their names on our fore
heads and not know it!
Only by being good, in little ways, can
we be good in great ones when the great
call comes.
1t is so easy, looking around at ones
own, and at people everywhere in busi-
ness, traffic, amusements, etc., to see
wherein they fail to live up to their best
If we could do just one thing, we would
live in better world at once-if we
could end the ceaseless disputation
which goes on everywhere, all the time
about everything.
Until We can end this pickering with
each other, this one-against and one-for
everything, We can rightly claim no
more than the slightest share in the
precious heritage Of the good for whose
sake this world is preserved despite its
manifest failinss.