Eden Central School - Embers Yearbook (Eden, NY)

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PRE IDE T ADDRESS ' Y Fellow Citizens: The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continu- ing challenge. We sense with all our facilities that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history. This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned, by this honored and historic cer- emony, to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of his God. We are called as a people, to give testimony, in the sight of the world, to our faith that the future shall belong to the free. For our own country, it has been a time of recurring trial. We have grown in power and in re- sponsibility. We have passed through the anxieties of depression and of war to summit unmatched in man' s history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight through the forests of the Argonne to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to the mountain peaks of Korea. In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves growing to know the full sense and meaning of the times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God' s guidance. We sum- mon all our lmowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future. MAN' S POWER UNSURPASSED We bring all our wit and will to meet the question: How far have we come in man' s long pil- grimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light--a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us ? Great as are the preoccupations absorbing us at home, concerned as we are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood today and our vision of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed by, and often even created by, this question that involves all human-kind. This trial comes at a monent when man' s power to achieve good or to inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes and the sharpest fears of all ages. We can turn rivers in their courses, level mountains to the plains. Ocean and land and sky are avenues for our colossal commerce. Disease diminishes and life 'lengthens . Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from the earth. Skit At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man,gov- erned by eternal moral and natural laws. This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man' s inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in his sight! MUST ACCEPT SACRIFICES We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose. We must be willing, individually and as a nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. The basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more produc- tivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists. Each citizen plays an indispensable role, the productivity of our heads, our hands and our hearts is the source of all the strength we can command, for both the enrichment of our lives and the win- ning of peace. The peace we seek, then, is nothing less than the practice and the fulfillment of our whole faith, among ourselves and in our dealings with others. It signifies more than stilling the guns, easing the sorrow of war. More than an escape from death, it is a way of life. More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave. This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity and with prayer to Almighty God. 5

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DEDICATIO MR. EDWIN C. PECK, SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL O you, Mr. Peck, our principal, our friend, and our ideal citizen, we, the Class of 1953, dedicate our yearbook, Embers. As an officer with the rank of Lieutenant Commander inthe service of the United States Navy in World War II, as an educator in the public schools of New York State, as a former member of the New York State Department of Education, as an advocate of student government in Eden Central School, and as a leader in the worthy projects of our community, you have proved yourself to be a credit to your country, your profession, and your community. 4

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Z Www fl ' llq 'W 1 , , i Q Al ,. ,fi ull' in H n , A M , 11 11 wd w 'V l if ii. wr, i l nl, K FOREWORD 'F Sweet Land of Liberty! Of Thee I Sing - ll AMERICA, by samuei Francis smith Y C E, the Seniors of Eden Central School, in order to perpetu- ate the memory of those patriots who have given their lives ,g in l If X . for our country, to honor those who, today, are still fighting the bat- tle of liberation, and to pledge ourselves to preserve, protect, and de- fend the precious heritage of patriotic ideals for which they fought, do edit and present this yearbook, our EMBERS of 1953. The time has come when American Youth must make a new Declaration of Independence against the ideologies that threaten democracy. By our thinking and by our labors we Americans must exert constructive influ- ence in every move we make, for this means united advancement against those also advancing destructive forces. For our symbols of Liberty or Freedom we have chosen the following: cover design, the monument to the minuternen, those forefathers who stood ready to defend their country as we stand ready to defend it today, Ex Libris, the American Eagle, emblem of The Great Seal of The United States, denoting power in peace and war, administration, the torch of the Statue of Liberty, that lamp of learning that illuminates the dark corners of the earth, seniors, the Capitol at Washington, the beneficent face of a Q nation shining with justice and truth , grades, the covered wagon of the pi- oneer rolling along the hilly road from the Eastern gate of kindergarten to the Western gate of graduation, classrooms, Abe Lincoln, the promise of America to every man, regardless of his birth, the right to become what- ever his manhood and his vision can combine to make him, activities, the work, purpose, organization, drafting, and signing of all our famous docu- ments of history, athletics, Lincoln, the rail splitter, the embodiment of the purpose, strength, humility, and dignity of the common man in a demo - cracy, the good sportsman. Dear Citizens, we know that as we show in the pages of our book how our school is preparing us to be good citizens that our resolution will find ' an echo in your hearts: That these dead shall not have ' V died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new H r mv birth of Freedom, and that government of the people, by the fl people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. A A v ,pl lllllllw lv NX, xv f P . .. . mv vs 1 . 1-at V QJM . . ' 70-1 I , , fi 6