Templeton High School - Class Book Yearbook (Baldwinville, MA)

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IVY ORATION Mr. Stinson, members of the faculty, fond parents, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we are gathered here to participate in an evening of fun and enjoyment. Intermingled with this festivity, however, is a note of seriousness. We, as Seniors at Templeton High School, have but finished our affiliation with this school. We will shortly take our places as members of a democratic society. Each one of us must contribute our small share to make this society truly democratic. Let us pause a moment and examine that word democracy and its application to society. As we look back through our histories we are continually reminded that democ- racy is an integral part of American society. It is something that has been passed on to us from our forefathers. It is a symbol of the United States. It is a heritage that is beyond monetary value. Men have died to preserve it. Men have suffered privation and disaster to perpetuate it. Today we are trying to give it to the rest of the world by extending aid to devastated and despondent countries. We talk about our rights, our great democ- racy, but how many of us can actually define democracy, and more important, how many of us really live democracy? To be a powerful force, to be the shining symbol of freedom and hope to the entire world, democracy must be alive. We must live democracy. Not one or two, not a handful of people, not a minority, but everyone of us - you and I, our next door neighbors, all Americans, all peoples from the smallest hamlet in the world to the largest metropolis, from the smallest country in the world to the largest nation. Then, and only then, will democracy be alive and will all peoples be free. Freedom and democracy are inseparable. One cannot be had without the other. Any nation that at- tempts to separate these two is struggling in the darkness. As we listen to our news-broadcasts, as we glance at the headlines in the news- papers, as we read our many magazines, how many of us are cognizant of the fact that after 1900 years, our society, which we believe is so highly civilized, which we brag about as being so progressive, is still searching for peace and happiness. Even here in our own country some of us are still trying to get freedom for everyone, regardless of race, creed or color. Think of it, ladies and gentlemen, we, who are the symbols of free- dom to the rest of the world, do not practice our own democratic beliefs. Look at the President's Civil Rights Program and the furor it has caused throughout certain sections of the nation. Forty-eight years after the battle between the states, when this whole question was supposed to have been settled, we are still fighting, verbally at least, as to whether certain people are human beings, endowed with the same rights as every other human being, or whether they are to be considered as animals, subject to the rule of their masters. Think of it! Such a situation in our own democratic society. Together with this situation we as a nation are faced with the question of com- pulsory military training and another draft. In less than three years after the second world holocaust we are preparing for a similar, but larger and more deadly war. This preparation has become a necessity because a large, powerful, gigantic, ismistic nation has decided to expand and enslave certain peoples in order to force its atheistic, mate- rialistic, lavish philosophy on other nations of the world. Yet we, as society, call our- selves the highly civilized twentieth century. In the plans of this materialistic nation, 21

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WELCOME ADDRESS Mr. Stinson, members ofthe faculty, parents and friends of the graduating class: Speaking on behalf of the class of l 948, it is my honor and pleas- ure to Welcome you, this evening, to our class day exercises. We hope that you will Hnd the program enjoyable, and, perhaps informative. Your interest and support is deeply appreciated and We thank you for coming. Whatever you may hear about the members of the graduating class is a reflection of our observations in the past four years. What is said may be true, partially true, or not true at all, so please do not be offended or embarrassed. We hope that this evening Will leave pleasant memories to all concerned. RODNEY E. BOURN President of the Class of I 948 20

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our own country is ear-marked for either enslavement or forced co-operation. If this is doubted, look at some of our citizens and their philosophy. These representatives are sent here as delegates of the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republic, imbued with the communistic philsophy and they are only too ready to find willing Americans to sell the American people down the long, winding, blood red river. Individuals, still trying to sell human beings for thirty pieces of silver and a little insecure fame and notoriety. The question now naturally arises, what can we do about such a situation? How can we contribute to a greater and better democracy? Ladies and gentlemen, we can all contribute to insure a better world, a free world, a free security by living democracy, by respecting the God-given rights of every individual. Today we hear on all sides of us talk about rights, right of this, right of that, but how many of us realize that our rights in democracy entail just as many obligations. For each right there is also an obligation. This is democracy. I repeat, for every right we have an obligation. But how many of us think of our obligations? Obligations to ourselves, to our neighbors, to our town, to our country, to all society? As an example of this obligation, implied in the term de- mocracy, each one of us is obligated, from the very fact that we live in a democracy, to become better educated and to educate all people in order that we may develop to our fullest intellectual and physical possibilities so that our lives, our whole being may con- tribute to the betterment of society. This is an obligation imposed on each one of us, from the youngest first grader to the eldest person. The better educated we become the better will be the home, the better the nation, the better, society. We will have a better understanding of ourselves, of our neighbors, and of other people. We will recognize that they have rights, just as well as we, that they are not to become slaves of a few, that they are not to be exploited for the profit of a few materialists. Midas will not be our God. Until such things are changed, until we live our beliefs, then we shall continue to struggle along in the darkness, hunting for peace and freedom that is a natural endow- ment of each one of us. Fellow Graduates: This week marks our completion of four years at Templeton High School. For us these were happy years. As we suffered through our formal education, the time may have seemed long and unending. But as we look back the time now seems short. We realize that there were many things that we should have done, but we didn't. Let us profit from our omissions. We are now ready to take up our various vocations, some of us to college, some of us to business schools, and some of us to industrial life. Let us profit from the philosophy and democratic principles which have been taught to us within these hallowed portals. These teachings are the foundations for real democratic living. Let us not let them remain stagnant. Democracy must be lived. We are thankful to our parents, to our teachers and to our town for giving us the opportunity to obtain an education in the American way. We are now ready to go forth into adult life, equipped with the fundamentals for participation in a democratic, dynamic, changing civilization. ADO TENAGLIA 22