Hillhouse High School - Elm Tree Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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WORLD PEACE -OUR HOPE F OR THE FUTURE I am a senior now, this is my last year at Hillhouse. My graduating as a member of the class of 1951 will mark the end of my fundamental schooling and leave me with a wealth of book knowledge and a hesitant philosophy on life. I am seventeen, with the world before me. I have reached the point where, ordinarily, 1 could choose my lifels work, face the world, and apply my ambitions and knowledge. My thoughts have turned to college, for I feel that I would benefit greatly from a higher education. I have always believed that college offers a young man a great deal in preparing him for his future vocation and position in society. But the insecurity and threat of war has made me hesitant and unsure of what the future does hold for me. This feeling of indecision presents a serious problem to any 1951 high school graduate who hopes to attend college, for he has no assurance of attaining a higher education or of continuing his studies when conditions of war have taken precedence. Confused by these uncertainties, yet forced to maintain his scholastic average, he ultimately becomes discouraged by the burden he must shoulder, disheartened by the questions to which no answers can be given. I consider myself a member of a unique generation -unique in the sense that we have been brought up and schooled to the infamies of war. Peace has become a mere pause. Almost half of our lives have been shadowed by war. To be sure, we have not seen war as the less fortunate in the countries of Europe and Asia have, but even to have lived under its evils for so long has proved destructive and demoralizing. I was eight when Pearl Harbor came. Hardly knowing why, I was disturbed when the boy next door went into service and when my friendis father wrote home from North Africa. After peace was declared, I was quiet and saddened by the little gold stars in the windows. That was nearly six years ago. Since that time I have come to realize much more fully the significance of war. I have been forced to realize it. The books and newspapers I read, the radio commentaries I hear, and the discussions in which I partake compel me to realize it, for they are all about the incessant struggle for peace and a better world in the future. And beneath them all lies the terrible possibility of that total war which sometimes appears inevitable. For war has become the Av or first letter in the world-wide alphabet of destruction, slavery and chaos. It has been undeniably instilled in our beings in the foun of fears. and heartaches. WVe find ourselves thinking almost constantly of the aggressions, the war machines, the atomic bomb, and the atrocities that have become synonymous with modern war. Yet man himself has not changed as methods of warfare have. He still seeks with all his being the life to which he is entitled- a home, family, security, and peace. What is the answer for the youth of today, for the 1951 graduate, for you and for me? What must we do? WVhat can we do? Whether we plan to enter college or to go to work, we must not give up hope, but rather, strive harder to insure ourselves of a more secure future. Faced with a national emergency, we will probably, most of us, serve for a period in the a1'1ny, navy, or marines. If necessary, we will iight and die for our country, as those before us have done. But it is all too apparent that the problem does not end there. War is not the final solution. We have seen the fruits of the war to end all warsf' The nations of the world have suffered enough. It is for us, as future citizens, to devote ourselves each day to achieving a world of peaceful living, religious, economic, and political. The task is difficult, seeming even impossible at times. VVe can all, however, do our parts by preparing ourselves to be worthy citizens, capable of choosing leaders of ability, of develop- ing national ideals of peace, charity, and integrity, perhaps of becoming political leaders ourselves. VVe can face the future with courage and confidence in this great democracy of ours, and with faith in an ultimate world Deace. The road ahead may seem beset with peril and almost insunnountable difficulties, but it crm be the highway to world peace, and, as Americans, it is our sworn duty to construct it. IVIICKEY CAPLAN 12

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FOR FREEDOM AND WORLD PEACE 13