Oakfield High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Oakfield, WI)

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THE TRUE CITIZEN “The ideal citizen is the man who believes that all men are brothers, and that the nation is merely an extension of his family.” Such a man will try in every way to better the condition of his country as he would his own family, and if he be a true citizen, he will place his country’s interests above those of his own. A true citizen will be well mentally, morally and physically. I am going to deal with the development of the moral side with a view of showing how a higher grade of citizenship may be established. But this moral side must not be the only one to be highly developed for the other two must be developed co-equally with it. A person generally proves to be a detriment to society in whom any one of the three is highly developed to the exclusion of the other two. An old writer has said, “Cultivate the physical exclusively, and you have an athlete or savage, the moral only, and you have an enthusiast or a maniac; the intellectual only, and you have a diseased oddity,--it may be a monster. It is only by wisely training all of them together that the complete man may be found.” Ever in life our attention is called to treatises dealing, more or less, with citizenship from the educational and the political points of view, but the other side of citizenship—the higher, the moral and ethical—is sadly neglected. In the path of life there are two trails. One lies upon the highlands where, as we climb higher, our toil gradually becomes easier. Flowers grow by the wayside and upon it the rays of the sun linger the longest. The other path lies on the lower fields where gloomy shadows gather long before the close of day. The true citizen follows the upward path and, as he draws nearer to the goal, his toil is crowned with success. This crown is the result of years of industry, perseverance, courage, honesty and faithfulness to duty. The follower of the lower path has been drawn there by the practice of procrastination, by the lack of self respect, courtesy, ambition and noble ideals. He looks back over his shoulder with longing as he presses onward. The life which a true citizen leads is formed by his ideals. What should these be? In prominence stands a warm fervor for his country with a strong desire to do something worthy of it; then the knowledge that life itself is the only thing worth knowing and not false standards; and finally that, as character is the greatest force in the world, he is going to be a man. Our success depends upon ideals like these. We can truly say that if a person aspires to be the most accomplished cheat ami succeeds in this, when compared with another man, he will still be below the man who has honestly striven to accomplish some good end, but has failed. Tho the former may lie educated intellectually and may speak words of learning and religion, he is still low. Therefore it is necessary, if our life is to be a success, to have high ideals. “No man ever really does a great thing who loses his character in the process” dust as soon as it is found that a man is going to preserve his manhood and stand by his ideals, against all opposite inducements, he becomes a power in the world. He

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OAKFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

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is also the cause of leading many other persons to partake of a life like that. These ideals must be developed in the child and so the parents, teachers and associates are responsible, in this sense, for the standards of our citizens. The strength or a nation is not measured by the quantity of its natural resources and the amount of its possessions but by its citizens, and their character depends upon the character of their homes, their training and their associates. When we leave the home roof, our foundation as a citizen has been laid and insomuch as we loved our homes, so we will love our country. The home of our New England ancestors is the corner-stone of the United States citizenship. These homes were very simple in structure and lacked many of the conveniences which we enjoy to-day. But these people were strongly united by the ties of love, reverence and loyalty. Here the children had constant examples of riyid respect to duty, conscientiousness, strong courage and strict obedience. '1 hese children became men and women of character and developed into citizens of the highest order. If trained in such a home, the children of today will grow up with strong, firm characters and will be powers in their communities. It is in the family that we first learn the rules of government and to respect the rights of others. t hese are the fundamental rules which govern the town, state and nation. These are so made as to give to the individual as much freedom as will not infringe upon the rights of others. To accomplish this end, each separate township needs men who will inspire respect and command confidence. In the different communities, for this general welfare of all, are officers to look after the public schools, the poor, the highways, and other public property. It is their business to provide for the protection against fire, the offenders of the Jaw and to attend to the other general business of the town. These officers should be trustworthy men who will be willing to spend a good share of their time in this work. It is not necessary that every true citizen should fill one of these offices and thereby be serving his fellow-men, but he should use power of voting so that these places will be filled with noble men not only voting for them himself but trying to persuade other voters to do likewbe. He will try to bring about measures which will raise the standards of his neighbors, intellectually, morally and circumstantially. “Ours is a government of the people and is no better nor worse than the people make it.” This shows the need of true citizens both in office and among the voters. “God give us men. A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who posses opinions and a will: Men who have honor—men who wilt not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking. '