Memorial High School - Humanist Yearbook (West New York, NJ)

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DYNAMIC PATRIOTISM About this time of the year professional patriotism rises to its zenith. We wave flags in the name of patriotism and march in glittering parades to the music of fife and drum. We lay with respect and reverence garlands of flowers upon the graves of our heroic dead. In the language of Lincoln, it is altogether fitting and proper that we do this. Far too often, however, patriotism flashes, pure and brilliant, on Memorial Day only to fade away in a few days into the oblivion of forgotten memories. There should be ever .present in our commemorate thinking three closely related ideas. 1. We ought to pay tribute of honor to those who gave their lives for us whether in war or in peace. 2. It is our duty to give sympathy and help to those who suffered on after the war drums ceased to throb. 3. We should find a comprehensive definition of patriotism and' exemplify that patriotism in our daily lives. We now pay ritualistic respect and honor, at least, to our fallen war heroes. We know, of course, that Memorial Day was instituted as a result of the Civil War, but in a larger sense we include all heroes who gave their lives for their country. The heroes of peace who made it possible to banish the curse of yellow fever from. the earth. are just as much entitled to honor and respect as those who lost their lives in battle. They were soldiers of the common good. Let us commemorate then the achieve- ments of both the heroes of peace and the heroes of war. After all, tributes of respect and honor are mere words. They may mean much or little. We need a dynamic patriotism which will help to alleviate the horrors of the aftermath of war. Real suffering is not felt by the dead but rather by the living who must struggle on. The ,bitter cruelty of war may be seen in the destruction of property, in the ruined careers and broken homies, and in the hopeless suffering of the sick, wounded, and crippled who must endure in many cases a living death. Yet in our thinking we frequently lose ourselves I fear in glamour and glory, in showy exhibitions, in beautiful displays of fireworks. We are too apt to 'forget the realities of war. Back of every glorious victory there are always blood and grime, and dirt and human wreckage almost indescribable. While we honor the dead let us not forget the living who have made sacrifices for us greater a thousand times than death itself. Genuine patriotism is dynamic. It acts, it does something, it helps those who cannot help themselves. Those of us who have survived war or who have not been touched by it cannot now die for our country even if we wanted to, but we can live for our country. To live for our country sounds grand, glorious, chivalrous, idealistic. Really it is almost the direct reverse. It consists of a thousand and one common everyday thoughts, a thousand and one prosaic actions which have no footlights and no dramatic appeal. For us the living, untouched by the scourge of war, liv-ing for our country is the highest kind of patriotism and at the same time the best type of citizenship. If we render honors to the dead, iwf we give, insofar as possible, 'physical aid and comfort to the living victims of misfortune, if we act as good neighbors, not primarily to the people of Europe and South America but to the men and women we know in our own community, then we are patriotic in the best sense of the term. Patriotism is merely another name for good citizenship. By knowing our own business and attending to our own business, we make ourselves into good citizens and thus into dynamic patriots who do something for the living as well as to commemorate the deeds of the dead. MQW Paqe Twelve

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ff' I I L l Page Fourteen Sylvia M. Abramson Syl Commercial-Business Humanist Staff, Senior Plays, '40, Jr. O.A.T.g C.T. 405 Intramural Basketball, T.T. 803 Artistic Typing, '39, Donnel1y's Eng. Club, '39g Girls' Squad Leader, '36. Mary Akrep G. G. Commercial-Business Jr. O.A.T.g Intramural Basketball, '38g T.T. 1005 Speed Demons, '40, C.T. 45. Pauline Alter - 3 Co ' -U ecid d . Cl 6g B okke p' u , 3 Cendo's Eng- C1l,,l'38g S . . W ,Vs . , xfxx f ,LM f Al, Ruth E. Anderson Rufus Academic-Montclair Senior Fleur de Lis, '40, Mathematical Nuts, '39-'40g Les Moutons Noirs, ,39-'40g Les Porte-Flambeaux, '39, Latin IV Club, '38g 1Cicero's Classical Club, '38- '39g Treas. '38-'39g Fautores Ciceronis, '39g English Termites, '38g Intramural Sports, ,36-'40. Richard E. Arndl' Richie Commercial Duke Hudson County J. V. Basketball Champions, ,395 Manager, Varsity Baseball, '39, Bugle and Drum Corps, '36-'37g Intramural Basketball Champions, '40, German Festival, '39, J.O.T. Club, '37, German Club, '39, Junior O.A.T'.g C.T. 43.