Traverse City High School - Pines Yearbook (Traverse City, MI)

Page 22 text:

In days when morality is a popular word and conservatism is fashionable, it's not surprising that so much of our time and energy is spent debating issues like creation vs. evolution, abortion, sex education and prayer in public schools. Proposed legislation that signifies a movement backward to more traditional values has created irreconcilable issues all the more sensitive because they involve moral convictions and religious beliefs. After decades of old values being challenged by revolutionary ones, it seems ironic that today it is the traditional view that must fight for survival. These controversial issues are an outward sign of the tension caused by people turning their thoughts toward the past in an attempt to escape movement toward a future that threatens them. As long as a struggle between yesterday and tomorrow exists, no progress can be made in either direction. The inevitable future makes living in the past an impossibility, and minds rooted in the past cannot plan for tomorrow. Often we must choose between preserving the past or concentrating on the future. We face such a choice locally regarding the use of the State Hospital property. It seems a waste to allow the destruction of such beautiful historic buildings, yet we want to make profitable use of the land beneath them — something more practical than the preservation of the old simply because it is old. Compromises, such as new uses for the buildings, are possible. Old and new do not always have to conflict. We can remember the past and learn from it, we can plan for the future, but we can only live in the present. 18