Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

Page 5 text:

3L 1976 v .4 i i m£ let rou know how things are going, on this two hundredth birthday Dear George Wa ' sjlii I writing to of our independ hce. Some people are Jcallihg tfiis the buy -centennial because everything from boots to bananas is being sold with flags and banners. Flags are still being used by politicians, but lately they have’been saying things like I am not a crook , rather than all men are created equal ’. The latest hit song is no longer Yankee Doodle ; have you heard I Want to Rock and Roll All Night, and Party Every Day , or White Punks on Dope ? I wonder if your patriots at Valley Forge and Fort Ticonderoga would fight with more courage if they could see how their new nation has developed, or would they trade their guns for a cold beer? The question of freedom still is with us, Mr. Washington. There was a girl who wanted the freedom to die, this year, but the courts and some machines said no. In Boston, schools are struggling with another freedom issue, ancl our freedom to control our OWN lives through government is threatened by both the government, and our own inaction. There seems to be some sort of awakening going on though about the land America itself. The people are pushing for tough environmental laws, and we are traveling by bike and van all over the nation, seeking out the beauty in America. In Ipswich we have made a pond in back of one of the town ' s oldest houses, built a walkway by the river, held parades and parties, built a flag pole on Town Hill, and published pamphlets, tapes and slides and stored them in our library so OUR children ' s children will see better who we are today. Jobs are scarce this year as America takes a stumble step forward into a new dir- ection. The space race against the Russians, is over. We travel WITH them now, and the jobs that accompanied that great industry have shrunk, as America searches for a new frontier, no longer Westward, but more inward, improving itself. The jobs of the future will likely be linked to pollution control and city planning; they will draw the creative young minds of today. I wish you could meet these seniors, 5 ] Mr. Washington. I think that you would approve of their staunch refusal to be covered up with Red, White and Blue gowns at graduation. They chose instead, green, maybe symbolic for a cleaner, greener America in the next one hundred years. Yours truly. £ Teacher, Bicentennial Course