West Philadelphia High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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im WW W

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Illlllfllllll After three years and nine months of continuous fighting, the end of World War Il was declared and victory was ours. Now comes the task of rebuilding an entire world. It is with this thought in mind that we, the Class of Ianuary, 1946, dedicate our Record and ourselves to PERMANENT PEACE For us nothing could be more fitting, because it will always be remembered that we are the first graduating class of the new peace. Our entire high school career has been colored by ration- ing, war bond and other campaignsg farewells to our young men, grim headlines, atrocity stories, and those heart breaking, ever- appearing gold stars. Each of these served as a reminder to us that we were living in abnormal times. How long and how fervently we prayed that we might see the abolishing of most of those things by the time we were ready to take our places with the men and women of the world! And how gracious of the Almighty to grant us that one wish! We regard our dedication as the first of our duties to help bring about the rebirth of civilization. We, who will thrive under the beauty and security of this peace, are aware that we are also the builders of tomorrow. lt will be through our efforts that future classes will be graduated under the wings of the dove of peace rather than under the shadows of the clouds of war. This time there must be no hesitating, no faltering along the way. The job before us is a tremendous one, but we will see it through. We will bring to the ruins of the earth a new glory, and to our succeeding generations we will give a better way of life. lt is this that our dedication means to us. Only by attaining the goal we have set for ourselves, will we be able to prove our appreciation of the wonderful deeds of our men in uniform. We must be able to say to the world that we remember all that they did for us. We must be able to show the world our continuation of their fine work. They have laid the foundation of this permanent peace, and we must build upon it. As we have worked for more than three years to help bring about this complete victory, we will now work further to insure complete peace. Our job is just beginning. We pledge ourselves to the fulfillment of it.