Camden High School - Megunticook Yearbook (Camden, ME)

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2 THE MEGUNTICOOK CAMDEN, MAINE MEGUNTICOOK BOARD Seated: Christine Plaisted, James McGrath, Betsy Wooster, Milton Christie, Ellen Donovan, Donald Laliberte. Standing: Grace Galanti, Ronald Banks, Charles Masalin, Parker Laite, Albert Bennett, Doris Mae Hopkins. One must have great respect for democracy and not use the word too indifferently. Our future jobs, our progress in the world—all these are endangered by the threat of Communism. Lest we descend to the level of Communists, do not let us rate democracy as if it were merely grabbing power and shooting those who do not agree with us. This is the antithesis of DEMO- CRACY! —Milton Christie, ’51 OUR GREATEST INHERITANCE Every day we take for granted one of the greatest inheritances fortune can bestow on us. That inheritance of which I speak is citizenship. I say we take for granted; I can easily say too, that we take advantage of this inheritance. We don’t realize how im- portant it is to our daily lives, but just let anyone take it away from us and we’d soon know it. Many of us would appreciate our citizenship more fully if we knew what is meant by this word. How many of us completely understand the wide scope this word covers and the great benefits we are entitled to because of it? In other words, what is citizenship? Webster defines it as “the status of a citizen with his rights and duties.” Now we must find the definition of a citizen—“a member, native or naturalized, of a state or na- tion.” Thus we learn that a person, native or naturalized, of a state or nation is a citizen and because of this he is entitled to certain benefits; he, in return, is expected to perform cer- tain duties. These benefits and duties are his citizenship. We have very few duties to perform for our country compared to the great privileges we have because of this citizenship. We automatically become citizens of the state in which we reside once we be- come a citizen of the United States; we shall have to find out how to be- come a citizen of this great nation. Most of us are lucky enough to in- herit this gift of citizenship and be- cause of this we don’t appreciate the

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 Ue Megunticook PUBLISHED BY STUDENTS OF CAMDEN HIGH SCHOOL “The School first; personal honors last” lutentq, Annual Zdltlan CAMDEN, MAINE MAY, 19si MEGUNTICOOK BOARD Editor-in-chief............ Senior Assistant Editor . . . Senior Assistant Editor Senior Assistant Editor ... Junior Assistant Editor . .. Sports Editor (Girls)..... Sports Editor (Boys)....... Art Editor................. Alumni Editor.............. Exchange Editor............ Business Manager........... Assistant Business Manager ... Milton A. Christie, . .. .Betsy L. Wooster, .. .James F. McGrath, .Donald A. Laliberte, . .. .Ellen L. Donovan, .......Grace Galanti, . . . Albert B. Bennett, Christine 0. Plaisted, ....Parker S. Laite, .. . Doris M. Hopkins, ..Charles E. Masalin, .....Ronald F. Banks, ’51 ’51 ’51 ’51 ’52 ’51 ’51 ’51 ’51 ’51 ’51 ’52 EDITOR’S NOTE The staff of the Megunticook wish to thank the members of the faculty and the students of Camden High School who have contributed towards the completion of this yearbook. We also want to thank the mer- chants of Camden and neighboring towns for their loyal backing. We hope that you will enjoy the work of many C.H.S. students in this twenty-fourth edition of the Megun- ticook. DEMOCRACY What is democracy? Armies claim to “bring” it to nations. Politicians promise it. Communists denounce it as the “old, formalistic, common-per- sons” democracy of the West and pro- claim the “new people’s democracy” of the East. Everyone has a definition for a word that altogether too many of us take for granted. I believe that democracy is a word that all persons use and very few un- derstand. In the month of an election, to a candidate, it means his own par- ticular party or personal views, if he has any. In the United States it means government of the people, by the peo- ple, and for the people. It is the ideal of the plain, humble man who goes off to fight for his country when it is in trouble, goes to the polls at the appropriate time and places his cross on the ballot paper. Democracy is respect for the indi- vidual soul. It is the right of the ma- jority to rule and the mino u” criticize. It is the freedom men and women to learn f( selves and to act in cooperat others for the benefit of all. Many centuries ago, in the time of Plato, people saw democracy dying, totalitarianism gaining. But in the long run, history has proved dictator- ship is self-destructive.

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THE MEGUNT1COOK CAMDEN, MAINE 3 tremendous values. If it wasn’t for this citizenship we wouldn’t have any- thing to say about who our president, representatives, and senators would be or about any other political mat- ters. We wouldn’t be entitled to un- employment insurance, old-age pen- sions and countless other great bene- fits. When we stop and think of it, most of us are certainly lucky, aren’t we? Do we often think of the thousands of children all over the world who do not really belong to any country? Maybe it would be a good thing if the next time we went to the church of our own choosing, we said a little prayer to God, thanking Him for making us citizens of this great coun- try, protected by its laws and armed forces, and asking Him to help the people of lands less fortunate than ours. —Ellen Donovan, ’52 COMMUNISM That nine-lettered word—commun- ism—looks harmless enough, or wait, does it? Does it look harmless? Look closely—look into the scenes behind it—Korea, China, even the United States of America. Communism is as poisonous as arsenic. It is as widespread as the common cold. First of all, what is a very simple definition of communism? One that we can explain and keep in our mind always. Communism is, in a large sense, greed. It is a certain group of people who are not satisfied with run- ning themselves, and perhaps their home, but want to rule everybody, ev- erybody’s home, everybody’s country. They would like to be higher than anyone, even God Almighty. These are the kind of people we want to rid the world of. Take Russia, for exam- ple. The people of that country are puppets. The government controls everything. The people are told what church to attend, what they can study in school, how to vote. There is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech. Do we want this United States, under God, to keep its free- dom and government of the people, by the people, and for the people? If we do, we must stop communism. Communism means war; war means bloodshed and death. For the sake of simplicity let’s call communism a dis- ease—like mumps or chicken pox, only worse. This disease attacks dif- ferent people; they become interested in it. All kinds of promises are made to the victims. What is it? Ignorance? Yes, ignorance and selfishness are two important factors. As we graduate from high school, we go knowing that in this time of un- certainty, we may never see our friends and teachers again. We may be drafted, or we may enlist. We may die fighting for our country against this disease, in the slime, muck and dirt of foreign soil. All this is because of the greed of men to rule the uni- verse. It’s our job to do our share to stop this dreaded disease. We’ll do it! We’ll fight for our freedom and liber- ty as our forefathers fought for theirs! I agree with what Patrick Henry said, and I quote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” I know that hun- dreds, even thousands of Americans will do what they can to give their children, some day, freedom and peace. —Donald Laliberte, ’51