Putnam City High School - Treasure Chest Yearbook (Oklahoma City, OK)

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O Treasure Chest Volume XIV l Published by the Yearbook Staff Putnam City High School C Oklahoma City, Gklahoma

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Which way toward tomorrow America? On perhaps a rainy, perhaps a sunny Iuly day, now nearly two hundred years past, there was recorded the birth of a nation upon a document of Independence. To a sleeping worldof people ruled by kings and czars, America awoke and cried her words of freedom- words which were to change dreams to realities and the ruled to the self-ruled. Within this book of our friends and memories, there also lies the chronicle of America which we all shall be a part of-a chronicle which a free people shall write, and tomorrow a free people shall read. However, it has been the unfortunate duty of history to record a page with blood and tragedy since that first day, in order to preserve the prize of freedom which the Revolution won. Civil Wars in our once- divided land strengthened our constitutional belief in free- dom and equal opportunities for all men. Two World Wars in distant lands have filled a thousand graveyards with American men and women, who died defending their country and its ideas. And now, following the high- pressured Cold War, emerges the Viet Nam War-a politi- cians' war to some-which daily claims a multitude of young lives, both American and Vietnamese,which should be working toward peace in- stead of struggling in war. However, history has prov- en its tedious trial with free- domg now the task of its pres- Foreword - 2 ervation lies with us, Ameri- ca's present and hopeful fu- ture. Now the precious life of liberty and happiness, for which our fathers and their fathers fought and died, is in our hands alone. Now the wrinkled page of history turns and we are left to compose its words. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washing- ton D.C., on a torrid Septem- ber day in 1963, the late Reverend Martin Luther King once told a sea of 210,000 demonstrators below his po- dium of an idealistic dream he had for all Americans: 'This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off,' he said, 'or to take the tran- quilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. . . I have a dreamf His was a wondrous dream,- a dream of fulfillment. The American Creed, which guar- antees equality, was his bea- con. The belief -that men should be judged, not by the color of their skin or the ac- cent of their tongueg but by their character and good will, was his hope-a hope which will eternally remain, although its author did not live to see it become a reality. Like Dr. King, we the stu- dents of Putnam City are also dreamers. We too are search- ing forthe answers he sought. Can we, the younger gen- eration, thought to be so fast- moving and unstable, so un- ruly and misguided, so morally corrupt and liberal, find these answers? Can we leap our social barriers to eliminate our ghetto conditions, aid our poverty stricken and raise our fellow men to a level of equali- ty? Can we cross the oceans, with their cultural, lingual, fi- nancial and geographical gaps, to unify our world, to form alliances with our broth- ers of other lands? These are questions which can only be answered with foresight, patience and time. It cannot be denied that America is marked with many sores which often cause the world, with its never ending problems and frustrations, to become a distasteful well from which to drink. Commer- cialism with its glaring neon signs and gaudy billboards has turned part of America into a jungle of eye-sores more suited for robots than humans. Urban blight with its smog, congested streets and de- teriorating neighborhoods is enough to make any tax payer Cand we are all tax payersl disagreeable after a day of having stomached it. These are but a few of the problems we, the generation who are left to find the answers, must face. The list goes on endlessly, including everything from the War in Viet Nam to medical costs to national debts. However, in the midst of our dreams of improving to- morrow, it is best that we not forget the realities of fulfill- ment which already surround us. The American has created more than discouraging news-