Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1931, Side 13

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The Aims and Aspirations of
Jon Bjarnason Academy
By REV. H. J. LEO, M.A.
Canadian nationality is going through a process of forma-
tion. Immigrants from many countries have made Canada the
land of their adoption. They have severed many of the ties,
political and others, that bound them to their mother-country.
They are now Canadians. Here they will live and work,
prosper or suffer, rejoice or lament. Here, their children and
their descendants, yet unborn, will most likely make their
home.
They owe to Canada the best they can become and do:
clean living, faithful work, an intelligent attitude to public
questions, loyal service to high ideals.
As regards the United States, the situation is exactly the
same, with the one difference that nationalization has there
proceeded further.
The necessity for noble ideals is the same everywhere.
Ideals will make or mar the future of any country. On the
development of noble ideals depends the greatness of a nation.
A man’s actions and progress are determined by his ideals.
This is equally true of nations.
The foreigners bring their ideals with them already
formed. These are the legacy of their homeland and their race.
Those ideals find expression in their customs, their literature,
their language, their activities, their peculiarities. Their suc-
cess and usefulness in the new land will depend on their stock-
in-trade when they come here and how they react to the new
conditions. Most likely they will fill a useful place here, if
when the3f came, they were endowed with the characteristics
that were the outgrowth of pure and noble ideals.
Some of the customs of the old land vanish before those
better suited to this country. That is as it should be; but the
qualities of mind and body, if they were good, should not be
given up, but applied with will and vim to the useful tasks
necessary to the building up of the new land. Along with their
fellow-citizens who were here before them, those of foreign
origin put their shoulder to the wheel and willingly give their
best to further true progress. Above all it is their duty to
give to their new home their finest culture, the purest thoughts,
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