Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

Page 24 text:

Senior Class Poem FOR A BETTER WORLD Williom M. Koulo, '44 For oges post, self-seeking men hove tried To force their will upon the will of others; From meonest thief to mighty potentate. The aims of all were but the some, in truth: To get the most they could from fellowmen. To gain, by petty plot or fearsome war. By brutal crime or clever fraudulence. Until it seemed all men were thus impelled. But some have seen another, purer, light: To work together, with sincere intent. To share their benefits with other men. The betterment of all mankind at heart. They try to spread the doctrine of good-will, To counteract the creed of selfishness, They try to make on end to senseless strife. Their aim, that peace and joy moy reign supreme. Let us, the youth who now ore coming forth Into this weary world, to take our place. Attempt to emulate the better spirit.

Page 23 text:

Class Oration Whenever the cry of war rings out through the notions of the earth, the lands and the peoples ore thrown into a caldron of fear, hatred, uncertainty and suffering. Man is no longer considered as a human being, but os a thing which must sleep, eat, think, act and even die as the lords of war shall dictate. Man can no longer call his life his own. All must be sacrificed for the good of the cause at the altars of the gods of wor. Thus is the state of the world in which we now live. A world in which uncertainty, con- fusion, and fear rage unchecked over the surface of the earth. The one idea of the people is simply to exist and to let live. Yet through all this fog of despair which seems to blanket our earth, there shines a light, a light of hope and of courage which should give warmth to the hearts of the people. It is the light kindled by the spirit of the determined and resolute youth of the world. The cynics will cry, What has youth, the irresponsible, the playing, the immature, to offer to the world? We hove but to look back through the pages of time and of history to find the answer. In all the battles and wors since time immemorial, it has been youth who has fought with the most courage ond with the most determination for the ideals and the truths in which mankind has believed. It hos been youth with its optimism and exuber- ance who has lifted the world out of its despotic melancholy and set it once again in the poths of peace and of plenty. It hos been youth with its strength ond its life, which has sometimes been called irresponsibility ond immatureness, who hos won the wars ond the bottles for the world. This, my fellow classmotes, is the tradition ond the privilege which we, the youth of this war, must live up to. It is o difficult task considering the magnitude and the intensity of this present conflict, but I believe that we shall succeed for we have olready made an admirable beginning. The enemy, by o cowordly, despicable ottack, delivered the first blow on our unprotected ond unprepared shores. They displayed then the mqiwjrar i which their youth was fighting for its ideals. It was then our turn to show the moncould fight when the occasion demanded it. Thousands of our youth rallied to which they carried with honor and with determination on all the battlefields on which ro ffffifoqed the enemy. The way hos not been without difficulty and without privation?.. verses; we have made our mistakes at the cost of much in men, irr'.ir In fact the task has demanded so much that even our youfi contribute their part to the services. Yet, at Midway, in Burmo, and in China, in the Africa, in Itoly and in the corners of the earth, the youTh ing their own and adding to the traditions of the post. Come then, let us go forward together with our place where the peoples of the earth may wolk togeth

Page 25 text: