tangents

news & views

by sten russell

Instead of the racy, globe-trotting style of Dal McIntire or his brother, Del, we have this month convention. reporter, Sten Russell, who has been accused of having tape-recorder ears and TV eyes. Sorry, friends, I'm no Dal or Del McIntire; so this coverage of the Health Education and Venereal Disease Council Annual Meeting and Luncheon in Los Angeles is probably going to sound just like Sten Russell.

The Luncheon was excellent; well worth the $4.50 tariff, which covered the entire 3-hour program. Not expecting to write my report under the heading of "tangents," I failed to take notes on the menu for those who care about such details, a la Louella Parsons. I sat at a table of social workers and teachers who were quite friendly and interesting people. Matter of fact, their conversation regarding the state of the nation was as electrifying for me as the rest of the program.

J. J. Rodriquez, President of the VD Council, was the introductory speaker. Dr. Sanford Brotman, Ph. D., Chairman of the Program Committee, also gave a brief introductory speech. He said that although

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the Council's primary purpose was the prevention and control of VD, that the Council had to go far afield in its thinking and programs to shed light on such a complicated problem as a social disease becomes in a complex society. He mentioned that the 1959 program theme had been on homosexuality, the 1960 on pornography. 1961 held a new frontier, he said, and that this year the Council had engaged a panel of speakers to discuss sex attitudes and sex values of 1961.

Dr. Brotman, who is also Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Psychology at USC, introduced the Moderator, Dr. John Beeston, MD, Assoc. Prof. of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health at UCLA, who then introduced the speakers to the audience. All had impressive histories, degrees and special fields of in-

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VALUES FOR THE INDIVIDUAL

Dr. Isidore Ziferstein, M.D., Assoc. Clinical Prof. of Psychiatry at USC, was the first speaker on the program. His topic was Sex Values and the Individual. He mentioned the