Meditations on Ecclesiastes

Good afternoon, this is Ed Murrow. A new word has been added to our ever-increasing vocabulary. It's a small word, breast in fear, to pronounce, not very difficult, to envision staggering. The scientific word may well become the most important in all languages and to all peoples.

It is pronounced, Fallout. out, rather a simple word to describe so much. Fallout, radiation withheld by quantities of atmosphere that may eventually descend to pillage, burn, kill, not only you and me, but the scores of generations unborn.

Quite a word, Fallout. I keep wondering if not the actual word, perhaps its meaning, has been with us for thousands of years. I remembered the Chinese were the first to use gunpowder, not for destruction, but as a signal for joy, much sound for much happiness.

Suddenly fallout seemed to come into focus. Stripped of its fearful garb, its offering now was positive, not negative. Fallout, words, thoughts, ideas withheld sometimes by the atmosphere of ignorance, but eventually descending to enrich the lives of you, me, and those same generations yet unborn.

Today, let us partake of man's fallout. One man, we simply call preacher. His father was a great king, but his son the preacher sang not of fear, but of confidence and direction. The other man is a contemporary American, his name, Norman De La Joyo, American composer, and this year's recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Through the span of hundreds of years, these

men who have joined hands and in a troubled time speak. The work is called Meditations on Ecclesiastes. To assist him, we have the Columbia Symphony String Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Alfredo Antonini. Assisting their efforts will be Rabbi Theodore L. Adams, Dr. Oswald Hoffman, Senator John Kennedy, and here is the very Reverend Lawrence J. McGinley, President of Fordham University.