Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-03-25
Cite,
end People
The Spice
OF Life
BY ROBERT ]. LEWIS

SnouJlng.
If you want to keep up
with the hard news, you can
read the headline stories.
If you want a little philos-
ophy, you can find it.
If you want informed opin-
ion, there's some of that, too.
A bit Of diversity can help
build a happy life, as well as
q good newspaper.
It can build a good polit-
ical system, too, as President
Kennedy said in his speech
at Berkeley, Calf, on Friday.
Also, more and more peo-
pie are beginning to realize
that diversity is the key to
building good cities for peo-
pie to live in.
That's the reason we'd like
to refer again to that speech
by Mr.. Kennedy last Friday.
Read it on one level of
meaning and you find 1t is a
mastery dissection Of Com
munist weaknesses. Read it
again and you can view it as
an eloquent Interpretation of
architectural principles, as
well as Of political ones,
based on a plea for variety
and freedom.
%. THE COMMUNISTS
rest everything on the idea
OF a monolithic world - a
world where all knowledge
has a single pattern; all So
cities move toward a single
model; all problems have a
single solution, and all roads
lead to a single destination"
Mr.. Kennedy said.
In contrast, he continued,
the kind of world Americans
stand for "rests everything
on the opposite idea-on the
idea Of diversity, self-deter-
mination and freedom.
g. .. No one who examines
the modern world can doubt
that the great currents of
history are carrying the
world away from the mono
lithic idea, toward the plu-
ralist idea.
". Diversity and indie
pendence, far from being OPP
posed to the American con-
ception of world order, rep
resent the very essence of
our vision of the future"
Hearing Mr.. Kennedy, we
felt he had put his finger on
the basic weakness of the So
Wet system: It's bulldozer ap-
proach.
How could a system that
imposes samenesS have any
appeal to new and aspiring
nations?
How could a string of peas
in-a-pod governments - all
alike and depending on a
single political design-per-
NIT the kind Of diversity,
contrast and flavor that life
in a world of free commu-
mites deserves?
This was Mr.. Kennedy's
theme. He supported it elo-
quently and convincingly.
AS he finished, it seemed to
us his words had helped il
illuminate some of the aspi-
rationS many persons have
for the American cities of the
future.
Viewed in the light of his
Interpretation, some recent
events and trends on the do
nestle scene appear to have
been inevitable. They reflect
what seems to be an essen
tial part of the American
spirit.
FOR EXAMPLE, behind
the recent diSenchantment
Of city planners with the
once-popular idea that the
only thing you could do to
cities to improve them was
to knock them down, neigh
borhood by neighborhood, is
the recognition that the
bulldozer approach yields
too much samenesS.
Behind the recent more
tender concern being dis
played toward the few old
buildings that remain as a
part of Washington's living
history is the realization,
finally, that a city must re-
spect the diversity of its her
itage if it wishes to remain
lively and interesting. (The
magnificent old Patent Of
fice-thanks to a fight to
preserve it intact-is to be
turned into a National Por-
trait Gallery, instead of be-
ing reduced to rubble.)
Behind the prompt reac-
ton of citizens of Annapolis
to the proposal that three
blocks Of the old town be
RACED to enlarge the Naval
Academy grounds is the con-
viction that a city'S identity
depends on the traditional