Cohn High School - Accolade Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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000119050150 ty THE ETERNAL FLAME Non sibi sed omnibus. Not for ourselves but for all. Among the myths of Greece and Route-those accounts of imaginary gods and goddesses by whom the ancients explained the mysteries of their world-is the story of Prometheus. Al- though a giant, he was always interested in helping men, those insignificant creatures who inhabited the earth, but who were the sport of the gods and the thralls of their surroundings. He aided them in the construction of their simple houses and taught them how to live more comfortably. But Prometheus was worried. He observed that the beasts of the fields and the giant birds, which built their nests on the rocks, were strongg but men were weak. The lion had his sharp claws, the eagle had wings, the turtle had a hard shellg but man, although he stood upright with his face toward the stars, had no weapons with which to defend himself. How could he approach those stars toward which he looked? XVhat could compensate for his frailty and make him the competitor, yes, the eventual ruler, of those other creatures which still kept their eyes on the earth? Now, Prometheus knew the secret of the superiority of the gods. They alone possessed fire-knowledge, forethought, and ability to think and plan. jupiter's wonderful flower of hre shone brightly in the sky for all to sec. It would equip man to reach the destiny Prometheus envisioned for him. So this beneficent giant, using a hollow reed as a tool, stole the Howcr of fire and brought it to earth. Thereafter, the ani- mals which faced the ground feared man, for now he could make weapons to defend himself. He was placed on a higher plane than any of them because with the acquisition of fire came the ability to think and to plan for the future. So we see, in this mythological account of the first steps toward civilization, man's knowledge, which tuade him a su- perior being, was godlike. lt was given to him unselfishly. Although we may dismiss the story itself as the creation of a primitive mind, those two principles have been and must re- main the cardinal premises of all progress. Knowledge has been an eternal flame which has guided man steadily upward and onward. When he has used it in an altruistic manner, great advances in civilization have come about. As we have suggested, the earliest man had no tools, no spears or knives, no bows or arrows. He had nothing to de- pend upon except himself and what nature gave him for food and the other necessities of life. Since that faraway time of helplessness, man has ascended to a position of power through his skill in using the bits of knowledge as he has accumulated them. From small beginnings like the stone hatchet, his in- ventions have developed until his tools are of the finest steel: his factories hunt with machineryg the steam engine and the electric dynamo run his mills and move his trains. One needs only to look about him to see the great strides in the scientific field. For instance, fifty years ago, man was an earth-bound creature. Then, one day at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers gave him wings. Today the plane has been so developed that one of the larger giant birdsi' alone can transport one hundred and seventy-hve men at an unbelievable rate of speed. RAY FRIZZELL, JR. As one considers the inventions necessitated by the demands for self-preservation, challenged by war, he sees the products of accumulated knowltdge: All types of guns and vehicles- conveyances that will travel on the water, and under the water as well as on the land and in the air. The zenith of all scien- tiftc inventions-the atomic bomb-came as a result of knowl- edge gained from research upon research. This bomb illus- trates, also, how knowledge has :titled the progress of scientific inventions. Scientists have revealed that the second of these bombs to be dropped was more potent than the first because they had learned how.to improve the construction so it would explode with more violence. The medical held is another which has benented from the ever glowing flame of knowledge. Fifty years ago if a person had a severe pain in his side-an attack of appendicitis, as we would say-a hot cloth was placed on him. ln too many cases the result was a ruptured appendix and death. Advances in medical science have shown us that was entirely the wrong treatment. Todav a person can undergo an operation for this type of illness and be back on the job within four weeks. Yes, no matter into what field one looks, he can see that progress has come only and completely through the ability to think and to plan. The eternal flame has raised the world from barbarianism to civilization. All this has been true in the past, but what about the fu- ture? Are we, the people of this generation, fully equipped with the knowledge necessary to take the next steps forward? Do we remember those basic principles-that in origin, the eternal flame was godlike, that it came to man as an un- selhsh gift? Can we pursue our march upward unless we continue to incorporate that spirit of unselftshness in all our endeavors? The world today, more than ever before, needs those who will not neglect the obligations of the eternal flame, young men and young women with strength and sincerity of purpose and nobility of heart to lead it in the paths of peace and progress. It needs those who desire knowledge enough to earn it by putting forth faithful effort, effort hard and tireless, and who believe that sincere rndeavor is never lost, but is re- paid with interest a hundredfold. Our hope for 1nankind's preservation and advancement in the future depends upon such knowledge, not just for our- selves, but for all. No race, no creed dare be overlooked or neglected. Our world has decreased in size until no corner of it is remote or insignificant. What happens in some far-off mountain village on the other side of the globe today may disrupt our ordered lives a few months or years hence. No, today when we say all, we must mean literally every human being in the world. All must share in the accumulated fruits of our abilities to think and to plan. To diffuse knowledge and its rewards is the obligation of us, to whom the flaming torch has been tossed. The eternal flame continues to burn, to direct us on our way toward greater achievements. We, its guardians, must keep it glowing brightly with that godlike quality of old. It will burn eternally if we use its light, Not for ourselves alone but for all.

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FRANCES SCHWEINING We, as a nation, are now emerging from a crisis. America, like a moth creeping from its cocoon, is discarding her cloak of isolationism and is viewing a world wherein the spirit of reform demands equal opportunity for all men everywhere. Our forefathers came to this country to win their freedom. They looked toward America with great expectations. At last. here was a land where their ideals would become a reality. Slowly but steadily, through good, hard labor, they worked to achieve their ideals. Our anctstors not only founded a new nation but developed a new concept of a way of living. They insisted that although men might differ in occupations and ability, they were all en- titled to certain basic rights: Freedom of speech: freedom of the pressg the right to choose any religion, the right to pur- sue happiness. These privileges could not be taken away from them by the whim either of a powerful minority or even of a bare majority. America developed into the great nation which it has be- come because they established firm and sure foundations un- derlying the fundamental principles of our government. The system best calculatcd to promote the creative qualities in everyone had to hold the destructive ones in their proper places is that wherein every individual is able to find or at least to strive for what he desires. A fundamental longing in each individual is that of being able to earn a comfortable living for himself and those dependent upon him. Until sucll an opportunity is assured, no man can give full expression to the productive impulses of love, generosity, kindness, courage, and initiative. ln America, a system that will foster these qualities has been developed. Regardless of race, color, or creed, one may succeed in life. He can advance as far as hc chooses and his abilities will carry him. No one tells him at which he must labor or where he shall work. He may select any occupation. He may weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various jobs against each other and then choose that which offers most to him. It is up to the individual, to each of us, to decide wh-ether or not life is to be a failure or a success! Today, as in the past, the rapid additions of new inven- tions and trades offer the worker a continually expanding choice: television and other electronic devices, air condition- ing, civilian aviation, food freezing, and many others. Those who have imagination may take advantage of these many new opportunities. But not everyone will patiently weigh values and choose wisely. Youth too often is impetuous, anxious to plunge head- long into whatever offers immediate reward. When a piece of dead wood is thrown into a whirlpool, it is spun around and around, sucked under, and never seen again. Only a live branch firmly attached to a tree or a trunk deeply rooted into a bank will survive the whirling waters. So it is with people, especially with the youth. He sees on all sides selfish- Sotiutcztoifg LOOK TO THE FUTURE ness and greed, easy money, too much leisure, a whirlpool to distract him from his purpose to contribute something further to the structure of the country which his forbears wrought from the wilderness. He experiences the temptation to plunge into the activities about him, to accept the position which comes his way first, before he is properly prepared and schooled in the principles necessary for continutd success. If he yields, he may easily become the dead wood, lost in the whirlpool of skilled competition, doomed to failure in life. Only those who are firmly fortified mentally and morally can hope to emerge as the leaders of their generation and to carry forward the development of our country's ideals for which their forefathers sacrificed in sweat, blood, and tears. Every world crisis presents new ideas and opportunities, new fields to explore, and new discoveries waiting to be made. We, the youth of today, must resolve to prepare our minds so that we may take full advantage of whatever the future offtrs to us. We owe to ourselves such resolution. But beyond ourselves, we must think of others, our fellow men all over the world. They need and deserve the same privileges as we. We must strive to achieve for ourselves a position that will help us to serve the world. A great deal of money is spent each year to provide us with the best training possible. It is our obligation as young men and women enter- ing the world to profit from such advantages. Faster and faster moves the tempo of American life. We have made progress for ourselves and others. Hard and unre- mitting labor has achieved much, but we must demand more. As if he were ascending a mountain, our horizon broadens with every forward step in our march to higher standards of living. We, as no other nation, have the type of economic system and the form of government which will provide maximum op- portunity for the further developments, both social and ma- terial, for which we are all striving. Our foundation for the future is firm. Our progress is assured because we in Ameri- ca have raised man to his full dignity as an individual, with rights to use his untied creative hands to work, to produce without restrictions, new things for better living. It has al- ways been the American way since that first group of men began to hack down trees for their homes on the Virginia coast. Today, we, the youth of America, are entrusted with the summation of the ideals and achievements of those ancestors who allowed neither toil nor tears to shake their purposes. We must have courage, determination, and persevertnce kin- dred to theirs. We must not shrink from calloused hands nor tired minds. We must prepare ourselvts to preserve the heritage from our heroic forbears and to disseminate their ideals of the dignity of the individual. We shall have made a reality of their dreams when men everywhere may say that they are endowed with inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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AS A MAN THINKETH JAMES H. SWINK, JR. l'Ve have come to the end of one phase of our lives and to the beginning of another. Behind us lie twelve years of intense effort. During those years we have delved into the science of mathematicsg we have pried into the mysteries of our universeg we have scanned the history of our country and our world. We have caught a glimpse of far horizons. All of those years represent the combined efforts of ourselves, our teach- ers, our parents, our society, to bring us to this day- ready to step out into a new life. Today we are the youth of the landg tomorrow we are the hope of the world. In a great many respects we are similar to all the other graduating classes that have gone before us. We have similar dreams and visions. We have the same desires for peace and contentment, and we have the same wide world in which to labor, to make our hopes and dreams become realities. But in one respect at least, we are different from any who have gone before. lVe are the first graduating class in the memory of man horn and schooled in one age and graduated into another. We become the first youth to grapple with the problems of the atomic age. lve are indeed the hope of the world, for whether we go down to de- struction in one cataclysmic blast of nature's might, or whether we rise to new heights of civilized living de- pends very largely upon us. W'e are not the hrst youth who have been the hope of the world. Every generation has sent forth its young men and young women to make this a better place in which to live, and the youth of every generation have risen to meet whatever challenge life has presented to them. How well they have done is evidenced by the monuments that bear their names and that testify to their tremendous achievements. But, though their advances have been real, they have not given us a per- fect world. They have not solved all the problems that beset mankind. There is still poverty, with a good portion of the earth's people underfed and poorly housed. There is still disease, with heart disease, and cancer, and tuberculosis, the great killers of men, going on unchecked. There is still ignorance even in our own favored America-such ignorance that permits us to spend more for alcohol than we do for education and ten times as much for crime prevention as for train- ing our youth while they are yet young so that they will choose the ways of honesty and decency. Nor are these the only problems of the imperfect world in which we live. War continues to spread like a plague over the face of the earth, devastating cities, and de- stroying whole populations, and leaving the country- side blighted. Men are still oppressed, governments are still pervertedg justice is still blinded. No, we have not been left a perfect world in which to waste away our lives. We have been left unfinished tasks, and tasks not yet begun, and opportunities greater than any other generation has ever known. Some may say that youth, lacking in years and ex- perience and proven ability, is a slender reed on which to pin our hopes for better things. But, oh, my friends, youth, inexperienced youth, has unlimited capacity for the three things the world so desperately needs-dreams, and work, 'and faith. The world has traveled a long distance on the wings of dreams-out of darkness, and fear, and superstition to the glories of present day living, out of the cold and cheerless caves of our ancestors to the modern homes of today. For long centuries man plodded across the face of the earth in the dust and heat, but today, on the wings of yesterday's dreams, he speeds through the heavens. Dreams are the seedlings of reality. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Who knows what heaven-sent dream of some youth today will transform atomic energy from a destructive bomb to the obedient servant of humanity? In the dreams of the youth of today may be seen the shape of the world tomorrow. The world needs dreamers, but it needs workers also -men and women who are not blinded by the sweat that pours from their brows and who do not cringe from blistered hands. Thomas Edison once said, I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my in- ventions come by accident, they came by work. Mountains are not leveled without toilg rivers are not spanned by a wish, and the world of tomorrow will not be fashioned without work! The best verse hasn't been rhymed yet, The best house hasn't been planned, The highest peak hasn't been climbed yet, The mightiest rivers aren't spannedg Don't worry and fret, fainthearted, The chances have just begun , For the best jobs haven't -been started, The best work hasn't been done. Without work, dreams remain mere wishingg without faith, work becomes aimless drudgery. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If in our daily tasks we lcannot see with the eyes of faith the world we are trying to create, then we are veritable slaves, doomed t row our galleys over the seas of the earth, and to liv and die in un- remitting toil. Perhaps to some of you the quiy ring voice of Fear may be whispering, i'HQ1N'fE-2E1XYQll dream about a world of which you know nothing? How can you have faith in your ability to solve problems never be- fore presented to man? Listen, you who fear, to a great truth spoken 2,000 years ago: As a man think- eth in his own heart, so is he. Yes, as a man think- eth, so is he, for like the wind which blows one ship east and another west, we are lifted up or pulled down according to the way we set our sails of thought: If you think you are beaten, you are, If you think you dare IIOI, you don't, If you like to win, but think you can't, It is almost certain you wonit. If you think you'll- lose, you're lost, For out of the world we find, Success begins with a fellow's will- lt's all in the state of mind. lf you think you are outclassed, you areg You've got to think high to rise, You've got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win a prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man, But soon or late the man who wins Is the man who thi ks he can. We are the youth the land. We are the hope of the world. In our creams we will find the world of tomorrow. lvith our work we will create it. Through our faith we shall enter into it. ff