Bay Ridge High School 1945 Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY) - Full Access

The class of nineteen hundred and forty-five is en route. To what destina– tion is for you to decide. Decide well. Let not one of us forget our lessons- the in-between snatches in which our teachers took time out to prepare us for the mental co;,fl.cts that the outside world inflicts. We shall meet many people of innumerable varieties. That is where the lessons of tolerance and kindness wi 1 1be tried. We must strive with all the ammunition our teachers stored within us to conquer desires to be other than compassionate. If we remember that people are not products of a manufacturing concern- that they are not made by machines which turn out exact features and standardized levels and work accordingly, then we shall have done justice to our lessons. The best way to succeed is to succeed without a guilty conscience. We must understand our fellow-travellers in this life. We must continue to realize that the only way, the decent way, should be to "Live and let live." Let us not detour from the right way. The right way will be the hard way- the proverbial dirt path. Shy not away from that fact. This is where our lessons of perseverance and good sense show themselves to be flexible and infallible. Ignore the high– way which appears smooth and easy. The rocks and dirt beneath were covered by the practice of forgetting to consider others . It offers the quickest means of transportation to our goal, but it also means that our facilities for clear thinking and judgment have been obliterated. It spells the utter corrosion of our ability to appreciate the beauty in the process of living. Of course, we shall meet obstacles, but the triumph over thec;e bulwarks is much sweeter when mingled with tears. If we use good sense, we can avert many pitfalls; and if we employ dogged perseverance, we too shall attain our goal. Our consciences shall not be tarnished with the knowledge that in the haste to reach the peak of our philosophies we might have crippled other fellow-travelers! We are the framers and the builders of the future world. We have been taught. Now it shall be revealed how well we learned our lessons. I beseech you; do not lay aside the characteristics which make for "Peace on earth to men of good will." Katharine Kremenich 35