George C Marshall High School - Columbian Yearbook (Falls Church, VA)

Page 107 text:

t Jk HH — the Inaugural festivities of a newly- reelected President, for example. The pros¬ perous Republicans celebrated their return to the White House in a fitting manner: magnifi¬ cent concerts at the Kennedy Center and the National Cathedral were followed by a briskly- stepping two-and-a-half-hour parade (which included several Marshall instrumentalists who were part of Fairfax County’s “historic 1976-member” Marching Band especially created for the occasion) and no less than five gala Inaugural Balls at different locations around Washington. The weekend full of fes¬ tivities provided even the most pessimistic nation-watcher with a few hours of fun. Although many Americans were worn out with trying to predict the next course of events, or get excited about their opinions, or even form opinions in the first place, things could have been a lot worse. Undoubtedly the world was changing — whether for the good or the bad remained to be seen for those who questioned. tort r Au Zems t jA 3a yte rrurrcAyori yAa rvcA iwr MA erriAAecA — At fur ' 7A ,yA otrtAu At 73 tflruzt utraA■ ' ' rtnxtAt. Top: President Nixon and Vice President Agnew view the high school marching band in their Inau¬ gural Parade. Marshall’s participants , though nearly lost among instrumentalists from other Fairfax County schools, are recognizable by their uniforms — visored hats, dark trousers, and light blue jackets (which appear gray). Above: The official token of appreciation received by students who marched in the parade.

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GCM 102 STUDENT LIFE An inexplicable apathy seemed to pervade the national political scene during the winter of 72 — in spite of momentous happenings in the U. S. and the world. Even with the ending of the dragged-out war in Vietnam and the release of American prisoners-of-war, some of whom had been in captivity for over ten years, a sense of excitement or even satisfac¬ tion was lacking from the atmosphere. Ameri¬ cans, especially the youth, began to realize that the “end” was not that simple: the goals which they had demonstrated, protested, and campaigned to achieve for years were sud¬ denly somehow not the ultimate answer at all. President Richard Nixon, rather confound¬ ed by the public’s apathy when he’d given it just what it had asked for for so long, was fur¬ ther plagued by Congressional debates and investigations: investigations into th e pre¬ election Republican Watergate scandals, the Administration nominee for director of the FBI, L. Patrick Gray, and the mounting outcry about presidential privilege, a constitutional controversy which threatened to split the legislative and executive branches of govern¬ ment. At Marshall, a segment of this current af¬ fairs debate was shared by government students as they participated in the Social Studies Department’s Memorial Seminar on Governmental Affairs. Such famous officials and legislators as Hubert Humphrey, Thomas Clarke, and Hays Gorey, representing the ex¬ ecutive and legislative branches of national government, independent agencies, state and local government, lobbyists, and the media, came to GCM the week of April 9-12. They expressed their views and answered ques¬ tions about such diverse subjects as econom¬ ics, foreign policy, civil liberties, and law en¬ forcement, among others. The speakers’ pro¬ gram gave Marshall a first-hand look at the controversies taking place across the river in Washington. Throughout the winter, emotional shocks, ups and downs, followed each other with re¬ lentless regularity. Dr. Henry Kissinger’s elated election-eve declaration that “peace is at hand” was followed by disillusionment when the North Vietnamese became again stubbornly reluctant to negotiate. Then Nixon s Christmas decision to increase bombing and to mine North Vietnamese ports, protested heatedly by stunned pacifists at home, seemed to prove an effective strategy as Kissinger was finally able to reach a peace agreement. But as the troops began to come home at last, and as the POW’s were released to their warm welcome back in the States, the problems of truce enforcement, retribution and reconstruction aid to Vietnam, and con¬ tinuing guerilla warfare in other Southeast Asian countries came into the spotlight. The deaths, within a month of each other, of former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman also greatly saddened the nation, as the Asian war they had tried re¬ spectively to end and avoid entered a new phase — its conclusion was still uncertain. Inflation and rising food costs were a cause of economic concern, and a group of Ameri¬ can Indians, heretofore a quiet minority, dem¬ onstrated its feeling of repression by taking control of the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. But along with all the disturbing tremors of change, a few comforting traditions remained

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GCM 104 STUDENT LIFE l ► F . Above left: Melanie May prays for last minute inspiration before head ing to class. Above center: Trying not to let life get to her, Mary Ber nazam rests from tedious reading. Below center: For an instant Stevi Keen regards things optimistically. Above right: Adventures in Englisi Literature feels left behind. Below right: Pausing a moment, Lejuai Carter ponders the value of it all. 1