Abington High School - Abhis Yearbook (Abington, MA)

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4 THE ABHIS A THOUGHT As Christmas is not far away, it is fitting that we say a few words here, concerning the most impor- tant day of the year. Christmas is the day set aside each year in commemoration of the birth of our Lord. It should be observed in a manner befitting such an occasion. During these days of Com- munistic aggression much importance rests upon our own ideas concerning Democracy and this gen- eration's attitude toward Christian principles. Sev- eral foreign nations have erased both jewish and Christian doctrines from the minds of their youth. As a result we are again engaged in conflict with another people. Here, in America, we have the opportunity to follow the teachings of our churches, homes, and schools. We should make a serious effort to uphold and make secure these beliefs which are renewed in our faith at this time each year. Each one of us should strive to catch the true Christmas spirit, the spirit of love. If we, as the leaders of tomorrow, maintain these ideals, the world-wide merry Christ- mas of our dream will some day become a reality. MARJORIB KRISTIANSBN, '51 EDUCATION IN AMERICA Few students at any school in America under- stand the full meaning of education. As defined in Webster's Dictionary, education is the act or process of educating. It is also defined as a science dealing with the principles and practise of teaching and learning. James McNary once said, Education is a thing that will follow me through all the years of my life, yet now is the time for me to learn. Most students go to school because they have to and not because they should. The young people who do not have at least a high school education find it ditiicult to obtain jobs in which there is a promise of a higher position. Most jobs require a college education and some a degree in the field which the candidate wishes to enter. Education is not an activity. It is a must for every human being on this earth. Without it one would not be as successful as he could be with it. An education is the essential thing in life and one cannot risk being without it.' That is why it is nec- essary for everyone to have at least a high school education. MARGARET Hows, '51 IN APPRECIATION Often there comes to my mind a comparison of advantages I have over those had by other youths in other countries as well as in other places in my own United States. just now I am thinking par- ticularly of my school. What do I appreciate about Abington High School? Not long ago I listened to Salom Rizk as he told of his life in Syria. He said that for a school in his village there was a small charred one-room shack, a leftover of the former school building after the savages of World War I. In his village school there was only one class, but he considered the children who attended this school to be highly privileged. He did not himself have this privilege, because he could not afford twenty cents a month for school. The conditions of schools in many places in Eu- rope today is worse than those which this speaker described. Often it is not a one-room school but no school whatsoever. The only way the children in some sections of Europe have of learning is by what they can acquire themselves. In America the youth take for granted the privi- lege of attending school. Today many young people regard school as an obligation rather than a privilege. When I think seriously of school, I begin to realize this wonderful opportunity which is mine for the taking. As I look over Abington High from the front I see the green grass, the freshly trimmed hedge, the smooth, clean walks, the beautiful architecture, the general construction of the red brick building, the tall flag pole flying the American flag, the flag of freedom, and behind it the symbol of freedom, the school. On the inside the outlook is bright. The clean corridors, the offices, the classrooms, the practical arts room, the science rooms, the cafeteria, the beautiful auditorium, and other facilities demon- strate the best in educational advantages. In the rear of the school are our track and foot- ball field, baseball diamond, and tennis courts for the purpose of developing the student physically as well as mentally. All these advantages exceed not only those in many schools in other countries but those in many schools in our own locality. There is also in Abington High a respect for teachers. Students do not fear teachers. The rela- tionship between student and teachers is very in- formal, teachers are friends who are doing their utmost to train us to become better world citizens. If each of us sat down and thought it over and took all the wonderful features into consideration, he would smile when thinking of our school. He would realize that in this glorious land of ours God has shed His grace on us. WILLIAM Cnoox, '51

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THE ABHIS 5 EDITORIALS THE CRUSADE FOR FREEDOM I believe in the sacredness and ,dignity of the individual. I believe that all men derive the right of freedom equally from God. I pledge to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on earth. This is in part the pledge of the millions of people in the world who have recently signed the Freedom Scrolls, the pledge of free people every- where who are praying daily that sometime, some- how, in the future the world may live in peace. From Labor Day until U. N. Day on October 24 the Freedom Crusade was carried on. The theme of the Crusade was truth. Thousands of people who signed the scrolls backed up their signature with a voluntary contribution. With the money collected several new radio stations will be operated, in the western sector of Berlin, day and night, broadcast- ing the truth to the enslaved people of the world. This is an effort to stab the armor of the Iron Cur- tain, an effort to win the war of propaganda being fought at this time. It is true that not all of these broadcasts will get through, but we know that a large part of the information, folk music, and hope will reach the communist people. On October 24, U. N. Day, the Freedom Bell, weighing ten tons and standing eight feet tall, was presented to the mayor of Berlin. It is a symbol of democracy's War against communism, a symbol of our fight between the Big Truth of democracy and the Big Lie of communism. Enshrined beneath the bell are the thousands of scrolls bearing our signaniresg the hope of free people everywhere. No words more fitting could be inscribed on the bell than those of a great American who stood for freedom-Abraham Lincoln, That this world, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. As Christmas time draws near each of us thinks more deeply of the love, peace, and purity for which our Savior stood. We who live in a free country should learn to think more of our free- domg to realize that in order to gain world peace each individual must strive to overcome his preju- dices and petty dislikes. Above all, we must guard and hold high the ideals of our country, America, the land with a promise. Thomas Wolfe writes, So then to every man his chance, to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity - to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and vision can com- bine to make him-this, seeker, is the promise of America. It is for us, especially the youth of the rising generation, to make this the promise of the world, not of America alone. May we accept the Freedom Crusade as a challenge and go forward, continually putting aside evil and lies for those things which are right and just, that some day our world may live in peace and security. MARTHA CRANE, '51 SHALL THERE BE WORLD WAR III? Today the whole world is beginning to wonder whether or not there is going to be a third world war. Everyone hopes that there will never be one, but the situation in Korea leads people to do se- rious thinking about it. It is a question of whether we should let the Russians start a real war, or put her out of circula- tion before she has a chance to get started. Many people think we should bomb Russia and put her leaders out of the war before she gets started. The Democratic way of thinking is to let the other per- son strike Hrst, which most people believe we should not do. We also have the problem of the Chinese Com- munists. They could strike at any one of several placesg for example, Burma, Siam, or Indo-China. It would be quite easy for them to overrun these countries if they could get a start because the coun- tries ate so backward in their machinery and their modes of living. These countries also have rubber, oil, tin, iron, and gold, as well as enormous export crops which the Communists in China desperately need for barter with the enemy world. Altogether, possession of Southeast Asia would give them food, industrial materials, and a source of dollar ex- change through exports. If we are to keep' Chinese Communists and Rus- sia from starting another war, we shall have to show them that we mean business, instead of send- ing polite little notes, telling them to stop lighting, which they utterly disregard. The main idea of Russia is to start little revolu- tions around the borders of China and Russia, therefore getting our troops over there to try to stop them and thus draining our country of its military power and leaving it exposed to Russian attack. That is why the United Nations takes weeks arguing about sending the troops, to make sure that they really need them. It will take a great amount of time and work be- fore we shall be able to convince the Russian people that they are in the wrong, but we all hope that with the leadership of the United Nations' Coun- cil we shall be able to turn their attention to more constructive things than war. MARLENE RANSOM, '53

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THE ABHIS 5 LITERARY AFRICA! LAND OF MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE It is a damp, humid day in midsummer. You, a member of the safari of james A. Cahill, the well known adventurer and explorer, are trudging deep into the heart of the sweltering jungles of the Dark Continent, exotic equatorial Africa. As the result of the jumbled reports of a number of frightened natives, you, an African agent for the Chicago Zoo, in co-operation with Cahill, are stalking that most ferocious of jungle beasts, a crazed gorilla, It is near noon of the fifth day of the expedition, which has reached the point where the incessant routine marching will cease and the safari will make preparations to accomplish the purpose of the trek. The native bearers hurriedly pitch camp in a fairly large clearing, like a wide shallow cup, and within an hour and a half you are tramping off into the jungle, with several strong blacks, all equipped with picks, shovels, and the like. Some distance from camp you find a suitable location and set about the procedure of digging a great hollow pit. The broiling sun, high in the eastern sky, is a branding-iron, burning intensely down with all its barbaric force upon the hapless party of workers toiling furiously in the noonday heat. The white wide-brimmed Panama hat you wear is little, if any protection at all, from this ball of flame which is beating mercilessly down upon the murky swamps and remote tropics of the Belgian Congo. Your scorched sun-leathered face is moist with dripping perspiration. The long hours drag lazily by, the heat increasing with each hour and becom- ing extremely unbearable. Fatigued, you pause mo- mentarily to rest and watch, with unseeing eyes, the negroes as they labor relentlessly in seemingly effortless movements, their ebony black bodies pol- ished in sweat to a jet-like sheen and their muscles rippling and their sinews straining to the task. You slave in the boiling sun throughout all that afternoon, the dark jungle growth like a choking wall all around you, literally steaming. Shortly be- fore sundown a pit of great depth is completed, the sides of which are leveled to an icy smoothness with a relatively new hardening compound to in- sure the safe imprisonment of the gorilla while in captivity. Witli the natives' assistance you conceal the opening of the pit with a quantity of dry tam- bouki grass and underbrush suitable in appearance to the locality, and with a few minor additions on the following day it will be in readiness for the hunt. It is after dusk when you wearily plod through the grey-green gloom into camp, exhausted, bitten by flies and a thousand voracious breeds of insects, and your disheveled hair a snarled nest for crawly vermin. You retire immediately to your tent, too fatigued to eat, your thin cotton shirt, which is drenched with oozy sweat, perfumed by an ex- tremely repulsive odor. You bathe yourself rapidly, recline leisurely on your cot, and relax to the low, weird and somewhat languorous chant of the native bearers and to the soft tempold shufiling of their feet as they writhe and sway to the pulsing rhyth- mic throbbing of the drums. This ritual continues far into the night and you lie there within your tent in silent but anxious anticipation of the mor- row's activities. Gradually you drift off into a deep slumber, incurred by the perpetual whirring, Whistling, wheezing, buzzing, and peeping of bats, insects, and other minute jungle creatures. You arise before sunrise the following morning to find no one stirring in camp and indulge in a light but ample breakfast. Because you have noth- ing of great importance to accomplish at the time, you decide that a brisk stroll through the nearby jungle would be highly refreshing and that you would gain an opportunity to view at close range a few of the many strange and weird inhabitants of this beautiful, mysterious continent and to study their habits. As you make your way over knotted clumps of dwarfed brush and through the intricate mesh of greenery, the sun, in all its golden splendor, rises above the boundless veldts and jungles of Af- rica's remote interior, a glittering contrast to the background of pale blue sky. Tangled interwoven vines criss-cross the heavens above into a tangled canopy through which the brilliant rays of the sun pierce, forming a sort of lattice-work pattern on the jungle floor. The jungle is now reverberating with the chattering of monkeys and the clamorous caw-