Hey, we've got a riddle for you! What do John Wilkes Booth and David Moberly have in common? They both killed Lincoln!
From the 1981 Yearbook
Absurd as that comparison might seem, it has its bits of truth. Booth killed one of the most respected men in United States history; Moberly sealed the doom of a school that has represented excellence and tradition for generations of Seattle residents. Lincoln the man issued the Emancipation Proclamation, America's first recognition of the necessity of pursuing racial equality, while Lincoln the school is a shining example of the reality of successful integration and cooperation between people of many different heritages and traditions. As the President showed his concern for his fellow citizens, so has the school cared for its own inhabitants.
And, of course, both died untimely deaths. Booth believed he was ridding the country of a tyrant, and shot Lincoln. Moberly thought he was relieving the school district of an expensive burden, and closed Lincoln. Obviously, mental myopia is as fashionable now as it was 116 years ago.
There is another striking aspect the two "deaths" have in common. Booth's Lincoln is dead, but his ideals and values set forth an example for humanity that will never be forgotten. Moberly's Lincoln may cease to exist as such, but it will still live in the separateness of its parts rather than the sum of them.
Each part of Lincoln High School, even if transplanted, has within it the potential to spread our school's humanity and warmth to its new environment. We have been given the privilege of experiencing life in this "second home" we occupy; we need to give the people in our new schools an idea of what that experience was like by showing them what Lincoln truly was: people, and love, and caring..
We won't let Lincoln die the way a mortal person does. We can't. The qualities that make Lincoln what it is have got to be carried with us intact to our new surroundings. We are Lincoln. We will not die.