Trinity College School - Record Yearbook (Port Hope, Ontario Canada)

Page 26 text:

OUR PUTRID SENSE OF VALUES. Why is it that people in the world today have apparently lost all sense of value? One does not lose this sense overnight. It is a process which changes from genera- tion to generation. Our parents have a different set of values to that of their par- ents and likewise we follow the same pattern of changing values. This pattern is not necessarily a one way street; hut we seem to have been steadily losing our sense of values with each new generation. It also appears to be gaining momentum in that same direction today, so much so, that it has attained an almost intolerable level. Take for example a typical teenager in a prosperous western country. He has been given a little spending money by his parents, who, obviously wanting the best for him are too generous. This money is burning a hole in his pocket. It must be spent, after all what is money for? So off he goes to the nearest boutique and pur- chases for himself a pair of the latest styled pants, without thinking that he may not need them at all. He is only keeping up with the styles, the ridiculous trends. Thus money, so easily come by and easily spent, gives the younger and growing person a false impression of the true value of money. The result is that when that person goes out into the world to earn a decent living for himself he must then learn the hard way the true value of money. 16

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The stakes in this election are very high. One third of the Senate seats are due to be filled and the G O. P. needs seven seats to gain control of the body. However, the prospects don’t appear heartening for tradition has been that the rul- ing party loses about 35 seats in the House of Representa- tives and 5 in the Senate. Mr. Nixon has pandered exclusive- ly to the south with his stratagems of going slow on the de- segregation and bussing orders and his attempts to get a southerner into the Supreme Court. In his two years it seems that Mr. Nixon has possibly aid- ed American withdrawal from Vietnam and temporarily cooled the Middle East, opened the way for a SALT agree- ment but his domestic policy has been shameful. The issues are now before the public as are Nixon’s and Agnew s politi- cal records. The importance of the decision cannot be over emphasized. — g. payne 15

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The hippies, that marvelous clique of protoplasmic scum, who find everthing wrong with our society but can offer no feasible solutions for the problems, are the people who riot and destroy so that they can be noticed and so voice their slimy opinions. These are the people who preach “free love when what they real- ly mean to say is “free sex’ . Pornography, indecent films, and underground nude books only act as catalysts towards the loss of our sense of morals and values. All these things influence the upcoming generation and their sense of values. These hippies are the idols of the younger generation because of their supposed freeness and individuality. How could our laws become so lenient as to permit sexual inter- course on stage and screen for all the world to see? What has happened to the good old conservativeness of dress, action and speech. Face the facts, we are filthy ani- mals and we are getting filthier every day. One does not have to be sadistic or filthy to enjoy life today; or does one? Do we want to sit back in later years and see the world in the hands of hippie influenced or hippie type people, people with- out a sound sense of values? How could a place like Canada, beautiful, prosperous Canada, sit back and permit tons of un-sellable wheat rot whilst millions die of hunger in the far east? And we ask ourselves, in amazement, how could pollution get as far as it has today? The reason should be obvious. A can here, a can there, a cigarette butt over there and a candy wrapper here all adds up or rather breaks down, if you prefer, to a lack of a proper sense of values. If we cared enough, if we had checked ourselves when these impulses first began, we would be far better off today. As it is however, one does not have to look too far to see the “happy result of our negligence and lack of, yes, even self respect. I say self respect because anyone who respected himself and his family would not live in a filthy house in a low class district. He would want the best house and location his money could get! What about living in a filthy, slumlike and overpopulated world. What happens when we have all completely lost our sense of values? The simple enjoyments of life have no impact anymore. The desire for more outrageously expensive and ridiculous pastimes increases. We devise sadistic methods of enjoy- ment. Do you want your children to be part of this picture? Do you want your children to be like the “fantastic hippies”, those sickly, perverted, drop-out bums of our society today? It could happen and soon too, possibly in less time than one would like to think of. Our sense of values and morals is going down the gutter fast. We must check ourselves and return them to a decent civilized standard. We all, at least all the decent people left, know what a proper sense of values is, we cannot go on living in guilt. Something must be done and there is only one thing that can be done, so let’s do it. It is not too late but we must start now for a stitch in time saves not nine but a million in our day and age and we already have millions of stitches to make if we are once again to enjoy a world fit for human beings to live in. — d. a. gatcliffe 17