A B Davis High School - Maroon and White Yearbook (Mount Vernon, NY)

Page 11 text:

The destinies of nations can be symbolized by hands which have been inspired by the good teachings of those who have gone before. The powerful, industrious hands of the laborer. the sensitive, skilful hands of the surgeon, the watchful, pro- tective hands of mothers, the tense, forceful hands of the base- ball players, the slender, flexible hands of the pianist, all have been guided and inspired by the performance of their worthy predecessors. The progress of the world depends upon the good created by these hands. Failure results from the evil and the destruction created by greedy hands. Hands build nations, maintain peace, and develop civili- zations. Therefore, hands are the appropriate symbol for the unceasing efforts of man towards the attainment of a perfect postwar world. Gloria Burke

Page 10 text:

lDlElDllCATll0N The struggle for existence in which we are now engaged will end victoriously for us in the near future. Then, while the ink is still wet on the treaty, the problem of building up the world will fall directly on our shoulders. It is we who will be left, who must rise as one solid mass determined to clear the blackened and charred embers of our present civilization, determined to start, to see through, and to finish the almost impossible task of building a new world. Through keeping in mind the sacrihces made by those who gave up everything at Bataan, Guadalcanal, and Tarawa in order that our American ideals may remain sound, through education and through religion, eventually we can achieve, if it is our earnest desire, a perfect world. We, the youth of today, will live in that world. It will be ours. Its succcess or failure will, without doubt, depend upon us. We know that we cannot create a perfect world, a Utopia or a Shangri-Lap however, we can lay the solid, enduring foundations of peace and security for a safe world. To this world, to this time, to this effort, we dedicate this book. Thomas Zekou

Page 12 text:

Dr. William I-I. Martin Miss Catharine I. Rhoades Supcllnlemlenl of Schools .Xssmnnt Suprrnnlrnilvnt of Schools OUR SUPERINTENDENT SPEAKS I am grateful for the invitation to write a brief message to you, for by so doing the link connecting your lives with mine will be forged more strongly. This gives me the opportunity also to tell you a few of the things which are very close to my heart and which are domi- nating my thinking during this cataclysmic period through which the world now is pass- ing. It would be easy at this time for you to allow yourselves to believe that civilization is only a thin veneer that is now splintering away. much as the veneer on a piece of cheap furniture splinters away. It is against this feeling that I would caution you. It is going to be your task, as you go out from your high school life, some to serve in the Armed Forces, and others in industry, or in further study, to assist in maintaining those ideals for which civilization always has stood by impressing them upon the minds of your associates whose idealism may not be as firmly entrenched as your own. At times you will End it difficult. for in so doing you will be called upon to bear up under loss, to iight the bitterness of defeat, and the weakness of grief. to be victor over anger, to smile when tears are close, to resist disease and evil men and base instincts, to hate hate and to love love, to go on when it would seem good to die. to seek ever the glory and the dream, and to look up with unquenchable faith in something ever more about to be. This is both your task and your oppor- tunity. May you have the strength to carry it through! Yours sincerely,