Walt Whitman Junior High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 14 text:

NUST FYR. XX- ' Q if '-- .0'54',' IZ ll J! f'f 1f:f - ' 47101111 ' fl flfy f a ai Qliliill 1 12 The U. N., created in 1945 to help economically and politically distressed nations reach a peace- ful and amicable solution to their problems, is itself in the state of internal chaos. The costly and still unsolved Congo operation has very nearly bankrupted the organization. Dis- unity among the five great powers including the United States, has weakened the moral strength of the world society.

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ALGEBRA--TO BE OR NOT TO BE I'm sure that at one time or other everyone of us has been called to the blackboard to solve an algebraic formula, and I'm equally sure that at least six out of ten of us have stepped to the board all poised and confi- dent only to be embarrassed. Contrary to popular opinion, the dismissal bell doesn't ring in the nick of time and the ground doesn't open up and swallow the embarrassed student. He finds himself staring at his teacher who smiles dangerously as she comments on his extraordinary dilemma. Meanwhile his class- mates express their deepest sym- pathy with shouts of glee. As he drags himself to his seat, he feels an overwhelming urge to get his hand on the evil genius who started this madness. He discovers first that al- gebra is not of recent vintage. In fact, he learns that it dates back more than 1700 years. It actually had its origin in an- cient Bgypt. A man by the name of Ahmes was responsible for it. However, it appears as if Ahmes actually had his Hproblemsn which put him in the same category as our Efortunate student . Later the Greeks contributed to the present day distress of American teenagers by using spe- cial symbols for unknown quan- tities. However, it is the Arabs to whom we owe our everlasting reproach. It was the Arabs who began the use of plus and minus signs. In fact, by the 800's they were doing fractions much as we do them today. They also introduced the zero and the word NA1gebraH. After Omar Khayam's book on the advances in algebra up to his time, the dark curtain of the Middle Ages descended. During that time algebra was completely forgotten. Howeven it wasn't altogether forgotten, for with the coming of the Renaissance, algebra was rediscovered. An Italian by the name of Niccolo Tartaglia at that time introduced the formula for solving the general cubic equation in one unknown. From the time of Tartag1ia's work in 1530, algebra has been directed toward more practical and operational problems. It is still the challenge to teenagers whose opinions vary from NI definitely am intrigued by algebrau to nwhat is it all about?U Neal Strauss RTO we I O X' 50474. vfiif A , x 'o'- sees-- x I' a f -fx I rin- . Z u .N . ' 1 ' I' xxlx I 1 ' .12 XXX , -fl! 1, 'Q Q is hiv X Q X li-'! H 1 1 ' E , X 'gl , .iii U N e , -lr f si u 2 -le- cw-'M 11

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1' I P V Have the past seventeen years since the creation of the U. N. been of such vast change, achieve- ment, and growing independence that member states feel less need for this brotherhood of mankind than they did during the immediate aftermath ot the second World War? Thus far, the U. N. has been successful in surviving, adjusting itself to, and often turning into good account, the various world changes. Over one-fourth of the world's population has thrown off the chains of colonialism since the end of World War II. Africa is an excellent but frightening ex- ample of the rate that the desire for freedom can spread. It has been predicted that before the second decade of the U. N. ends, only a very few of the most scat- tered peoples will be under colo- nial rule. The Trusteeship Council may disappear. One-third of the membership of the U. N. now con- sists of new states. Coinciding with the revolt against colonialism, is the revolt against famine. That part of the world which is miserable is rea- lizing that it is not necessary for it to always be so. Although some nations seeking aid have beautiful and ancient cultures, economically they are lost. A great attempt is being made, through the United Nations and by individual countries, to bring these underprivileged people economic prosperity. Supposing that the danger of war is placed far in the background, disarmament achieved, and the colonial peoples freed, the problem of the under- privileged will remain the most pressing time-absorbing, and necessary problem. The uneasy cold war is still another change to which the U.N. has had to adjust. Shortly after the Organization began function- ing, it was realized that the Soviet Union would quickly de- tatch itself from the four re- maining powers. Had there been no cold war, however, it was unrealistic even in 1945 to as- sume that the five powers would remain united. It was wrong to assume that other member states would be content with the domi- nation of those five. It is now difficult to predict which nations will remain or become the great powers in the most indefinite future. We cannot and should not expect the mechanisms which power, and permit the U.N. to function, to be infallible. For these mechan- isms are men, none of whom are perfect. Nor should we forget that the peace of fear under which we all now dwell, is caused by the knowledge that an initiative by either East or West would be met by instant retaliation, thus destroying all. The free world did not choose this path. Yet the U.N. should not be condemned for all displeasing situations. It was created by men who hoped that a fraternity of mankind might bring an imperfect and war- outraged world closer together. So far, the United Nations has survived one attack after another, one neglect after another, one world change after another, and has emerged undamaged. Na- tions may ignore it temporarily, but they finally return to it as the best means to meet their prob- lems. The United Nations perhaps is the only hope for attaining and maintaining world peace at this time when the meaning of the peace is so unclear. The U.N. must succeed. Alice Graifer 13