Esther Davis McKenna
"Sept. 11, 2001, will always be a part of who you are and who you will be," said retiring Superintendent Dr. Kathy Weiss. "Instead of focusing on the negative, you and your fellow students rallied together to help each other deal with what happened and then found ways to help others."
In their freshman year, members of this year's class sponsored car washes and sold ribbons and snacks, raising more than $5,000 for terrorist victims. They also raised funds for victims of the tsunami that rocked south Asia last December.
Weiss, who watched the class of 2005 grow from first-grade students to graduating seniors, quoted Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel in her address to the class, imploring students to remain politically and socially active. "The greatest source of evil and danger in the world and to the world is indifference," she quoted. "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of life is not death, it's indifference to life and death. The opposite of peace is not war, it's indifference to peace and war. Indifference is the enemy.
"Elie Wiesel would have been proud of you - you were the opposite of indifferent in September 2001 and throughout your high school careers."
Valedictorian Philip Eye and Salutatorian Matthew Schenker both congratulated their classmates for their outstanding academic, athletic and artistic achievements - including the first-ever high school production of the epic musical "Ragtime" last fall.
Eye said that upon graduation, members of his class would be subjected to inept leaders who "do not represent the public, a hostile environment and a diminishing job market in a failing economy," but encouraged fellow graduates to work "as individuals toward a greater whole."
Photos by Esther Davis McKenna/Herald
