Brodhead High School - Red B Yearbook (Brodhead, WI)

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Th F A CHALLENGE 6 L1'C1l1'e--To AMERICAN YOUTH THE GOAL OF OUR FOUNDERS VALEDICTORY Fourscore and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. These were Lincoln's words at Gettysburg in 1863. And now less than two hundred years later, we, an energetic, resourceful people, working together in a free economy and guided by a government of our own choosing, have built that new nation into the American way of life . . . a life which to me is themost outstanding of mankind. When the many great men, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and others, founded this country, what was their goal? Do you know? They had many ideas in mind, from their ideas developed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, the framework of our government. It is more, however, than the framework. It is the complete construction or building which guar- antees to every citizen his intrinsic right of freedom. In this construc- tion are embodied three fundamental concepts: ill That government be based on law and not on arbitrary will. Our government is based on laws which have been made honestly, for the good of the people. They are not the result of little thought, but of much reasoning, and are binding on everyone--Congress, the President, lawmakers, the courts, and general citizens alike. C25 That government must rest on the con- sent of the governed. One problem that faced our founders was a way in which they could develop a national state Without crushing the in- dividual beneath its power. This was solved by setting up local, state, and national governments. A person can decide about those questions concerning himself. The people in a community decide about local af- fairs, the communities about state matters, and the states in turn, help the national government. C35 That government must respect and pre- serve the rights of the individual. This fact is self explanatory. We know that our rights are guaranteed to us in our Constitution. Govern- ment should help where necessary but should not make moral cripples out of individuals by doing for them what they should be doing for themselves. In order to execute a government founded onhthese principles, our founders had to mold the nation into the desired unique form. I'd like to compare it to the making of the hydrogen bomb or the atomic bomb since we are living in the the atomic age. I know nothing about how to make an atomic bomb, but I imagine first of all, the scientists had to de- velop a plan to follow-the mathematical, physical, or other funda- mental principles concerning its making. Our founders too developed a plan-the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. ' Next, the scientist had to obtain the needed elements and combine them in the exact amount. Our founders had little difficulty in carrying out this step. The people were already available, but they had to be united. They did their utmost then to unite the people through com- promises to solve the difficulties, through representatives to speak for the people, and through speeches, books, and articles to convince the people that unity was necessary.

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Baseball Brodhead's 1954 baseball team opened its season with an 11-1 vic- tory over Albany. Jerry Christensen did effective pitching and Duane Lederman led the hitters with two hits in as many tries. The following boys were in the starting line-up. UD indicates returning lettermen. Catcher-Dick Badertscher Pitcher-Jerry Christensen' First Base-Duane Lederman' Second Base-Ned Myers Third Base-Art Roderick' Short Stop-Bob Taylor' Left Field-John Burkhamer Center Field-Francis Brown' Right Field-Allen Williams' Others who reported were Charles Marsh, Bob Matzke, Leon Per- kins, Bill Robichaux, Marvin Wolf, Lewis Wheeler, Sidney Wheeler, Jon Sveom, Dick-Lunde, Frank Steiner, Paul Weibel. BASEBALL SCHEDULE April 8-At Albany. April 14-At Orfordville. April 20-Juda. April 26-Belleville. May 3-Brooklyn. May 10-At Albany. X

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Last of all, after the bomb has been completed, the scientists must experiment to see if their efforts have been in vain. Our forefathers tested their efforts through letting the people work together, and run the government. There still remained some difficulties to be ironed out, but in the main, their work had been successful. This labor of our founders is our American Heritage. The American Heritage is whatever the citizen has that is not of his own effort and his own making, the thing that he has acquired and been brought into the world to enjoy. To the American, I think this heritage shows up as prin- ciples and opportunities and obligations. For example, principles of governmental organization and group action based on respect for the integrity of the human individual: and secondly, opportunities for build- ing his own life based on the idea that the amount of effort he exerts will be the thing that will make a difference. There are barriers, but effort and ability and individual initiative will overcome these. There are ob- ligations also, based on the assumption that the individual knows that his destiny depends on his participation. He knows that is true. If he fails in his job and does not live up to his obligations, then the whole structure collapses. We, as students of today, have a far greater problem than did our founders, although it demands of us the same qualities which were possessed by them. Their nation was tiny and so far removed from the rest of civiliza- tion that it wouldn't have had much effect on the rest of the world whether they had won or lost. ' But our task and responsibilities are different. Our nation is im- mense and its government very complex. The world, instead of being vast as it once was, has grown small. The countries that were once half a year away are now close neighbors-we can reach almost any country in the world in twenty-four hours. How we live and what laws we make, influence the whole world. You have heard people say, Why do we bother about these other countries at all? Why don't we close our doors and tend to our own busi- ness? Let the rest of the world do likewise. But history has proved that every time a government has grown strong, by good deeds or foul, and remained aloof from the world, that government's victory has been its ruination. It is up to us as future citizens to study and learn what we can do to keep this government-big, strong-in this world of nations. We, as the future lawmakers of our government, should keep in mind a famous quotation: To Whom much is given, of him much also is required. We must remember that much more is required of us today than of those a hundred years ago. Our obligation is greater, because our privileges are greater. For every one of our rights there is a duty- the right of freedom of worship, and the duty to practice religious toler- anceg the right of freedom of speech and press, the duty to speak the truth and to respect the opinions of others, the right of freedom of as- sembly and petition, the duty to refrain from mob action. These are only a few examples. I could mention many, many more, and so could you. The goal of our founders, then, was to create strong individuals, mentally, morally, spiritually, and physically, to allow them to work together as a small group, and gradually grow into a concrete, united nation with the essential principles of government laid down before them. Yes, that was the goal of our founders and they reached it. Why don't we then set our goal-to uphold the standards and principles they X