Edmonson Middle School - Cougars Yearbook (Ypsilanti, MI)

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I'M JUST ONE Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. I would like to tell what we each can do as one CID. A stone can determine a great river's course. form that rock, which will determine what the world w First, we must have self respect. In order must have love for our own life before we can love ou faith in a greater being before we can believe in our Make sure to stand up and say, HI am here! breathing human being.N ' We each as pebbles can ill be tommorrow. to respect those about us. We r fellow man. We must have selves and others. I am a person! A living, People are the creators of ideas. Greats such as Einstein, Bach and 0'Henry were just simple people, but the difference from them we are what we make of ourselves. Life is a chance. Sure, what ever way we go Whether to be an invalid or to be independent depends if we all have faith in life. Jesus once said, Ulf a mountain.U Can we take the first step to the journey to Can we? I know we can. Just dare to become part of yourself! Our thoughts produce leaders, not only in ou We must be super salesmen of our ideas. They hold th If one of our pebbles slip and the river tra and others is self confidence. we can make something of it. on us. We can guide the river man has faith, he can move a peace, to love, to freedbm? it, to be involved, to be rselves, but in those around us e key to tomorrow's beginning. vels the way it pleases, can we pull ourselves together? This question will go unanswered, because we as people are the determining factors. I found a little poem that has so much truth in it I must share it with you. It is written by Walter D. Wintle and the title is nThe Man Who Thinks He Can.n For Thinks She Can.H If you think you are beaten, you dare not, you don't, I think you can't we women, nThe woman who you are, If you think f you'd like to win, but It's almost a cinch you won't.. If you think you'll lose, you're lost, For out in the world we fi fellow's wills It's all in the state of min If you think you're outclass think high to rise. You'v self before You can even w don't always go to the str But soon or late the man who he can. nd Success begins with a d. ed, you are, You've got to e got to be sure of your- in a prize. Life's battles onger or faster man, wins Is the man who thinks This poem is so simple but so truthful. It just says people make themselves Life is a commitmentgeach person must make a personal shape to what their lives will be like here on earth. sacrifice to life. They must Take for example the busy ones: N0h, I am too busy, see me later.H Just slow down, life isn't a great race. Let's all take time and say, Hey, I like myself and you know something, I like you. My idea of citizenship is - it must start with respecting yourself then the school or city or even the world, but First become a person. Know and learn yourself If you need help, just reach out, someone will be there. If not a person, God will answer, just confront him. If you're in need, He's got what you want. If we all hang together, we can make it. Just have faith, most of all find your self respect. Look in a mirror. Look at your inner self shine, Look, you're a person. Thank you. 17. Becky McCormick 8th grade

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VM ONLY ONE Mr. Time Keeper, Judges, Fellow Contestants: I am here today because of my keen interest in public speaking, along with the self-confidence that I plan to win. My mind is healthy and I cannot be brain-washed by today's ills because I am one in mind, body and soul. December 5, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks boarded a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, extremely tired from slaving in the white man's home. She decided to sit in the section of the bus that was off limits to people of her color. The color I am re- ferring to is nBlack.n While sitting on the bus, a white man demanded that she give up her seat for him, and Mrs. Parks was only one. One dedicated to fight for her human rights. For years, Black people were characterized as being uignorant,H filthy and disorderly. Everything has changed in Black-white America, and yet nothing has changed. One hundred years ago, at a time of danger and doubt, Abraham Lincoln stood before Congress and pleaded for freedom for the slave in order to Hassure freedom to the free.H He added: HFellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. . .The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.H The words are still relevant. One hundred and thirteen years ago, in one of the Negro's perennial crises, Frederick the white Douglas warned that America's racial policy was Hfrought with evil to man, as well as to his victims.H He added: Uwe Negroes are here, and here we are likely to be. To imagine that we shall ever be eradicated is absurd and ridiculous. We can be remodified, changed and assimilated, but never extin- guished. We repeat, therefore, that we are here, and that this is our country. We shall neither die out, nor be driven out, but shall go with this people, either as a testimony against them, or as an evidence in thus favor throughout their gen- eration.H Many I am be a lazy settle to any other before my settle to I control Dr. Martin Luther King wrote the ungrammatical truth of an old These words are still relevant. contributions to our society came from only one person's idea. one. Yes, one with many values and convictions. HI will not settle to Black man, I will not settle to be an un-educated Black man, I will not for my household to be destroyed by drugs or settle to watch my children deteriorate allow my mind to become racist, I will not do, I must strive for the top. For I am only one. be poor, I will not settle man-made ills. I will not to eyes, I will not settle be second in anything I my destiny.H in his speeches to Blacks and whites. He quotes preacher. HLord, we ain't what we oughta be, we ain't what we wanna be, We ain't what we gonna be, But thank God, we ain't what we was.n Antonio williams Ninth Grade 16.

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