Introduction
"God is Dead!" . . . "The Family is Dead!" ...
These catch-phrases have glared at us from so many headlines, blared at us from so many television and radio broadcasts, that it is easy to shrug nd dismiss them as cliches. Similarly, we tend to ignore the barrage of alarming statistics concerning rising crime, teenage alcoholism and promiscuity, narcotic addiction, devastating divorce rates, environmental pollution, political corruption, and so forth. Until one or another of these fearsome factors actually intrudes on our smug individual existence-until our wives are robbed and raped, or our children are arrested at an orgy for possession of pot-we like to pretend that all's right with the world, and if some other fellow has problems, it's none of our business.
For several years now, it's been the policy of The Publishers to bring our readers face-to-face with every situation, however shocking or ugly, which has important implications for our society. We sincerely believe that one of the major dangers of our troubled times is the tendency toward apathetic acceptance and/or the blocking out of unpleasant realities. Moreover, we are convinced that a hardhitting approach which strikes close to home is the only way we will make the public sit up and take notice.
-The Publishers