West Seattle High School - Kimtah Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

Page 9 text:

EARL ROBINSON FOREWORD It is with a feeling of great pride mixed with nostalgia and West Side High school spirit that I extend my deep- est best wishes to the 1946 graduating class and all the students of W. Seattle. In choosing The House I Live In as a theme, Kim- tah does the writers Lewis Allan and myself a real honor. But more than that, you show a wonderful and important understanding of the significance of our America which the song tries to express. This is a land made up of many many different races, colors, religions, and beliefs. It is strong and can be great, precisely because of these many strains which make up the ingredients of our melting-pot. As we learn both to work and have fun with each other on a basis of equality and understanding, we thereby lay the foundations for getting along with the Russians, the Chinese, the Africans, the Yugoslavs. If we allow our- selves to be divided by race, religion, or belief, here, then we can look for trouble not only inside America, but all over the world, our world. This is the message of The House I Live In and a challenge to all of us. The chal- lenge of a world blown to bits by atomic bombs, or a world living in peace and understanding with a constantly rising standard of living for all peoples. I am confident that the students of West Seattle High will meet that challenge and help to make the whole world The House We Live In. ' The House We Live In is a huge house - big enough for every race and religion and belief. There are certain people, who think like Nazis and fascists, that would like to see us here in America fighting among ourselves, divided from each other because a Presbyterian thinks he's better than a Baptist, a Gentile better than a Jew, or a white better than a Negro. My folks were Italian-born and my being called a Wop and dago early in life taught me a few things. I've learned since that if we let ourselves be divided by such silly and un-American ideas ,we are being made prize dopes. I know the young people of America are smarter than that. Our house can be a real home with all colors and religions living together in friendship and understanding, and if we work together we will make it that way. My very best wishes to Kimtah, to the grad- uating class and the students of W. Seattle High School. -Frank Sinatra -Earl Robinson FRANK SINATRA 5

Page 8 text:

' ,355 MM I TR fy ooiflcyeyffmff QI 'ft' ffl Q - U v v w v ' My 1 3 s . ivilizav' n ha i ,Q .X n ngulf n a sea o - ness, u t - -. tioif o e s has ooded e with e or a eoplesfOut of the eca and des ruc ' n of a -t o ld a ing r li beams ' ly, b t ravely. ines arle on at it ol . eye f child branded as ' erior, eyes le fear, Indionese still strug- gling r the b an r' hts of liberty and equalityg a a Ne o worker toilin at the side of a fellow Jewish- meric . V' 'nce theiASettlers braved the wilderness, our fore- father a e foug t for equality and a better life. They car ed a eam of a new world with them to the un VM plored t itory. We, too, must carry the dream of free- dom and equality to every community in the world, until it becomes a reality. Fascism preaches the superiority of one people, democracy, the equality of all people. Democracy, how- ever, cannot survive if people, through their prejudices, continue to spread the same doctrines of racism as did the Nazis. Everyone must realize his individual responsibilities and begin to shoulder them. The youth of today must help the beam ofttruth grow until the light of racial, religious, and .economic equality engulfs the world.

Page 10 text:

Y, .-,. W,,,w ,W Wim, , feeeefze if Z 3 r QI ll fl K , 1-I 'x 'I What if America to me? A name, a map, the flag I Jee, is A certain word, Democracy, What is America to me? Q , , I gg The house I live in-a plot of earth, a Jtreet, The grocer and the butcher and the people that I meetg The children in the playground, the faces that I Jeep 'Pill racef, all religionf, That'J America to me. V, . The place I work in, the worker at. my fide- I The little town or city where my people lived and died. The howdy and the handxhake-the air of feeling free The right to :peak my mind out, That J America to me. 'E The thing: I fee about me--the big thirigx and the miall- The little corner newsstand-and the houxe a mile tall,' ii The wedding and the churchyard, the laughter and the team The dream thafx been a growin' for a hundred fifty ye-art. The town'I live in-the street, the houxe, the room, I The pavement of the city, or a garden all in bloom The church, the Jchool, the clubhouse, the million light: I fee, But erpecially the people-That? America to me. I ? From the song The Home I Live In All rights reserved 6 J