High School Graduation Speech 1943

The Spirit of America

Morehead High Commencement Address

1943

By James D. White

     Youth has ever faced the future unafraid --- full of faith – with hope, and the members of the class of 1943 of Morehead High School also face the future unafraid – full of faith—with hope.

     For some three centuries life on the American continent has been lived that we might have a better and finer as well as higher level of living.  Through the generations which have grown up on this continent, millions of parents have toiled and worked and sacrificed that their children might have better opportunities.  It has been this spirit of America which has given us the vision to develop and to grow.

     The closing words of the Declaration of Independence are:  “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”  It was this spirit of the people of these United States that enabled them to progress into the future for a common good. 

     It was a vision of the people that a new nation might travel along the path of peace and good will.  In that spirit America expanded.  With that ideal fostered in the public schools established for the common good, the idea of democracy moved forward through the years.

     With inspiration born of imaginations, America advanced on her course with the worthy purposes for which she was founded, namely, to quote from that historic document, the Constitution:  “to form a more perfect union; to establish justice; to insure domestic tranquility; to provide for the common defense; to promote the general welfare; and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

     The program for democracy in those days called for an era of peace.  We embarked as a nation upon an era of rather peaceful days, full of activity in a rapidly expanding country.  Fired with the zeal for developing an unknown territory, and enchanted by the idea of democratic ideals, we advanced successfully.

     It is the spirit of America that helped this nation advance by peaceful ways.  It is the spirit of America to accord to all nations, large or small, the right to choose their own form of government.   It is the spirit of America to avoid aggression and oppression of weaker peoples.

     But it is not the spirit of America to stand by when her sister democracies are threatened.  It is not the spirit of America to retreat from any line of duty.  It is not the spirit of America to refuse to defend ourselves and the freedoms we prize.

     Thus we expressed ourselves in the Monroe Doctrine that, although we are a nation desiring peace, “It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense.”

     Today our rights are seriously menaced.  Today we resent our injuries and the injuries which have been inflicted upon nations which we recognize as having the right to their own form of government.

      We, the class of 1943, face a difficult and bewildered world.  But America never recognizes any hopeless situations. 

     We have had great trials and tribulations.  We have passed through dark days.  On our horizon the sun is always shining.  We have mutually pledged ourselves to guard the freedoms which are ours, that there may be a better and a finer world.

     It is the spirit of America to fight for that world which will be finer and which will be better because of the generations which have made her strong.

     For the ideals which we cherish, for the goals we would hold, we shall fight as only the spirit of America knows how to fight – as only a nation born of an idea of right and justice for every person can fight – as only a nation untried in manpower, in wealth, and resources knows how to fight!

     Members of the graduating class of Morehead High School of 1943, we have an appointment with destiny.  Somewhere in the unknown future our nation calls for action on the part of youth.  Democracy must be preserved.

High school student talks the talk and walks the walk.

Shortly after his 18^th birthday, James D. White was called into the U.S. Army and was trained as a rifleman in Company L of the 7^th Infantry Division.  He was shipped to Europe, landing in Italy in 1944.  His division fought their way through France, and James was wounded on Christmas Day, 1944, when he and others, while on patrol along the border of France and Germany, walked into a minefield.  He was awarded a Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.