Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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Freedom noxusn FREEDOM is so vrraii to us who live here, I have chosen to speak about it to-night. Not only is it vital to us here, but also to the world around us. It is a very difficult word to define as it represents many different things to differ- ent people. If, however, we ask the following questions, we may catch a glimmer of the essential part freedom plays in our separate lives. What are we free from? What are we free to do? Are we free from persecution? Are we free to share equally with others, the responsibilities of the human conununity. Are we free to worship as we desire? Have we liberty to think, speak and act as we see fit within the laws we ourselves have made to preserve human health, safety and justice? And if we have these liberties, are we developing them? Do We treasure them as something a.s essential to us as breathing? It is not enough to make speeches and write articles praising freedom as something good, great, and noble. Freedom is more than a poetic word. It is vital to our lives as human beings. We enjoy many freedoms, some won in older times and others established within the memory of persons still living. 'We have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and so forth, all subjected to the laws of the land, we all have personal freedoms dating back to the Magna Carta. All these liberties were stated by John Stuart JIM in his essay On Liberty. This is the most complete argument in favour of the individual concerning his liberties or freedoms. I have told you and asked you about the many aspec'ts of freedom. You may think this concerns the adult world only, but that is where you are quite wrong. I would like to show you why. There were two yotmg people about the same age as you and I. We will call them Igor and Peter. They were of average intelli- gence and both had a tendency to be quiet. These boys were very much alike. In fact there was only one big difference. Peter lived in a democracy, Igor unfor- tunately was in a country without freedom. So, Peter attended High School and later was able to go to the university of his choice, and choose his own career. Igor could only go to secondary school and afterward, his career was picked for him. He had no choice but to consent to his superiors wishes. This could ruin a person 's life as he may thoroughly dislike the oecupa.tion which he is in. This is just one ol' the many thousands of examples, and that is why everyone should be concerned about freedom. Not only will your education and profession be affected by the freedoms 'that you possess, but also your social life, family, belongings, and every- thing sacred to you. Freedom concerns everyone in the world. It is something no one can really define, something tangible, yet so intangible. It is knowing that you can say anything, do anything, or go anywhere without being questioned as long as it is within the law. It is something we cannot live without, and still be happy. It is the goal of most leaders, and should be the goal of everyone of us. VVe are tight- ing to preserve our freedom now because if we lose it, it may never be regained. If you make freedom your business, it will be lasting. JOHN PALMER Twenty-two

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We too can become fine men in this respect and there is no better place to learn and practice tolerance than right here in Pickering Collge. In order for a community to function smoothly its citizens must be tolerant of one another. Very few of us will ever be confronted with the same situation as the good Samaritan, yet we will come up against every day situations in which we may be tolerant. There is an old saying that no one is perfect and if we could keep this thought in mind we would find it much easier to be tolerant of the mistakes of others. Perhaps one of the best places to pract.ice, and in many cases observe toler- ance, is on a school team. As all of you know one of the essential requirements for a successful team, that is, one that wins and in which the players are happy, is to keep your criticisms to yourself and to keep the team spirit up. There are bound to be members of your team that won't be as good as others or who will have an off-day , but be tolerant of these people. You probably know yourself how it feels to be criticized during a game and you know how it lowers your spirit. Therefore if you criticize someone else it is bound to lower his spirit and, since he is part of the team, it is bound to lower the team spirit. This hurts a team very greatly for a team with skill and spirit is a top team. a team with spirit alone is a very good team and a team with skill alone is only a. mediocre team. Another place where tolerance is needed is the classroom. Classes are like teams and they 'too must have the proper spirit. If a member of the class asks what we might consider to be rather foolish and time wasting question we must realize that he is only trying to learn. We should give him and we should give others the opportunity to l-earn by being tolerant ourselves and not pushing the tolerance of others. Of course the most important place for tolerance to be practiced at Pickering is in the corridors, for it is the corridors with the work and bull-sessions that go on there that are the very heart of Pickering. Again we may consider Pick- ering as being a large team and ift must have the proper team spirit in order to become a good school. And surely we all want a good school for we the students are Pickering. If this building were 'to burn to the ground right now Pickering would still exist for we, the students would still exist. But if every member of the student body left this school right now Pickering would cease to exist because the students are Pickering. Therefore the best way to improve Pickering and thus improve ourselves is to keep up a high spirit and to do this we must all practice tolerance. WVe must be tolerant of people making rash statements, perhaps in the heat of an argumentt or without too much thought. If we disagree with a person we can very easily keep it to ourselves and try to understand his point of view. There is no need to start a row in the corridor by talking behind his back or get- ting the boys together to give him a hard time. All our lives we are going to have someone over us-no matter how high you rise in this world you will always have to answer to somebody and it is a good idea to learn proper respect and tolerance for authority now while you are still young. If we can develop a good sense of tolerance now we should have one of the greatest human assets with us for the rest of our lives. DAVID BIILNE Twenty--one

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inding a aith to live by When Gods die, Jlen Die also. No civilization has ever surrafred after the doninffalt of its Gods. I ts doom comes about uihen the faith and idealism which formed the bases of its laws and its arts and the meaning of its life are challenged by scepticism and then aban- doned in disbelief. ns QUOTATION written by a famous English Journalist, Sir Philip Gibbs, proves that civilizations need a faith to live by. This not only applies to civiliza- tions but to individuals. Individuals also must have certain ideals and beliefs to look up to in order to maintain a strong and staunch character. Now stop for a minute and think about the seeming trivialities that separate our different religions. Let's look first at the Baptist Religion which prohibits dancing, smoking, and the wear- ing of lipstick. To most of us here these things seem silly and even ridiculous, probably because we do not understand the reasons why. However without thinking We might condemn everything Baptists believe in. Now in the Mormon religion a man is allowed to take several wives. Just the thought of having to support more than one wife scares most of us - - into say- ing I would never be a, Mormon. Roman Catholics believe that it is wrong to read books and see movies that have been censored by the church. The Hindus believe that 'the white cow is holy and sacred. They place the lite of this cow above their own lives, and this tor us, is very hard to understand so we think of the Hindus as strange people who go around worshipping white cows. This is the only side of their religion we see. And again, there is the danger that we will condemn the whole religion because we do not understand this seem- ingly peculiar point. As my last example let's take a look at the Doukhobors whose means of pro- testing is to take oft' all their clothes and walk around naked. If Pickering were a Doukhobor school and it all of us were Doukhobors- when most of us didn't like the lunch that was served we could get up and march around the dining room, naked - to protest our meal. Ot course this would look ridiculous to say the least. Again this is the only part ot their religion we are familiar with and we would probably overlook the important aspects of their religion. All these incidental aspects ot' the various religions are extremely insignifi- cant When compared to the moral values that each religion offers. Do not let these oddities blind you to the worthwhile things. It you investigate all religions you will find many factors in them. These factors to me are the most important part ot every religion. These are the things that are the basis oi' all religions and even if we don't agree with all elements of any religion we must believe in these things. For example: Every man on earth must be charitable. XVe must be able to go out of our way to help others. Charity is a quality that is handed down through the ages and has become a part of every religion and it must also become a part of our lives. VVe must find a place in our hearts for the other man and stop thinking about ourselves. Twenty-tlm'ce