In their attempts to discourage dissenting members of the public from attempting (in the Jeffersonian tradition) to influence our policy in Vietnam, apologists for our government's policy frequently state that the situation in Vietnam and its background are too complicated for the general public to understand and comment on. This is not the case. If one disregards the many misrepresentations of the situation widely disseminated by our own government since 1965 and sticks to the plain facts, the degree of blame which we must shoulder becomes quite clear, as those who have followed the course of events with close attention are aware. They need not be rehearsed here.

In a corridor of the royal palace in Amman, Jordan, there is a large photograph of King Hussein. Or rather three photographs within one frame, so arranged that as you walk by the picture keeps changing—in the manner of those pictures with a three-dimensional effect. This changing, multiple picture is a good metaphor for the Middle East, where things are very often more or less than they seem and where truth depends largely upon the angle of vision.

Our group became aware of the relative nature of truth within forty-eight hours of the beginning of our trip. Warmly greeted at the Cairo airport by members of the Ecumenical Advisory Council (which includes Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches), launched upon an exhausting and impressive round of dinners and interviews with cabinet ministers, educators, journalists, and religious leaders, strolling by the Nile after a dinner at the Papal Nuncio's residence, we felt both important and welcome. Twelve hours later we were arrested as spies.

Ten years ago, in the space of eight months, between January 1 and August 17, 1960, sixteen independent states emerged in Africa. No previous period of history had seen such an upsurge of new sovereignty. For Americans, with their habitually peripheral and fantasy-laden view of the so-called Dark Continent, the emergence of states with such exotic names as Mali, the Ivory Coast, Chad, and Nigeria was regarded with a puzzlement and imperfect understanding which has prevailed for a decade. Vast tracks of desert, savannah, and rain-forest became states equal, in theory at least, with the, United States. France, and England.

Even fifteen, years ago sheep could safely graze in the fields opposite our apartment. But luxury apartments began to be built apace and the land which had cost 50 lire a square metre now sells for as much as 130,000 lire. There is only one patch of green left in the area, yet the proprietor of the whole district can now erect four blocks of apartment buildings on it, having won his case against the Town Council. "They always win their cases against the municipality" is the comment in the district; "they have plenty of money and the municipality is bankrupt."

I think there are certain situations and events in human life that are so horrendous and evil that a sensitive human being is left speechless and painfilled to the point of numbness. Such were the actions at Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Dachau, Dresden, Bataan, Sharpeville; now we may add another name in the long list of human brutality of the twentieth century —My Lai.

It is easy to condemn the particular men who perpetrated this crime against God and man, just as it was easy for the Germans after World War II to stand apart from what their government had done, to insist that it was not they who released the gas jets; so too Americans today are horrified and condemn some few men as scapegoats since it is clear that it was not they who gave such orders or who pulled the triggers of the M-16's and the 50-calibers. In both cases, this facile rationale is an escape by a whole people from the responsibility for crimes committed in an atmosphere which, by their tacit or vocal consent, made it more likely that such crimes could be committed.

The military utility of the limited Cambodian campaign should be clear to those capable of assessing the facts. It will help protect the withdrawal of American troops, and reduce the Communist capability to launch attacks in the southern half of South Vietnam. It will, in short, help the process of Vietnamization. On the other hand, the fate of the I.on Nol regime in Pnompenh remains in doubt. Should South Vietnam, and perhaps other countries in Southeast Asia, help the new Cambodian government after American withdrawal, it could withstand the efforts of Sihanouk. Hanoi et. al. The venture gained time at least to shore up the Lon Nol regime, while not assuring its survival. Nixon's expressed hope that the venture might prod Hanoi into serious negotiations can be dismissed in the light of North Vietnamese patience and determination.

Words are like people; they have many relatives and companions. When you decide to marry a word to your particular purpose, it is thus well to make clear in advance that it is the word you want and not the whole family of associations. "Myth," of course, is a much-used and well-battered word. But in spite of varied usage, "myth" remains in linguistic currency and, if carefully defined, can be serviceable.

Towards the end of his tenure as president of Sarah Lawrence College Harold Taylor attacked “the present system of lectures textbooks survey courses standard requirements of subject matter examinations md grades” for failing “to touch the inner consciousness of the student or to dtil with his motivations his emotions his aims ind his needs.” It was a typical call for relevance in education.

What I want to do is examine some of the puzzles and hidden assumptions that attach to the relevance-in-education controversy, We need not raise such misty questions is What is the relevance of relevance? (although this is sometimes done) But it does seem imperative to begin with the basic question: Relevant to what? Taylor's answer to that question would appear clear enough.