Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • January 12, 2011 the civilized commentary of announcers we both have come to think of as friends. We interact with that station a lot. One announcer regularly enriches his selections with background stories and is a splendid performer. However, this person, who shall remain nameless, used to make some minor mistakes with his German pronunciation. I sent him an e-mail and he got the pronunciation straightened out virtually overnight. This is a station where the staff and the audience are intelligent and cordial. That’s probably why they have to ask for money. There aren’t a lot of us left. PBS is the only TV channel we watch, and it’s worth paying for. Some of the pledge drives are actually enjoyable, even when they show the same musical selections from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s three times in the same week. Fortunately, the people who enjoy operatic and symphonic music, quality science shows, and historical documentaries that focus on personalities instead of things blowing up tend to have rather adequate incomes. PBS seems to stay afloat based the generosity of people with intelligence and good taste. Now here’s a reach. A couple of years ago, on a bus trip to Philadelphia, I looked down at the Delaware River from the bridge and saw the U.S.S. Olympia. I recognized the ship instantly from my scale-modeling days, but I had no idea it was still afloat. The ship is a masterpiece of naval technology from the earliest days of the revitalized American fleet under Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, and they had to fight Congress every inch of the way to get the money. The “protected cruiser” is so old that it was designed for ramming enemy vessels, yet so well designed that she could do 22 knots, or 25 miles per hour. The eight-inch main turret guns and the five-inch secondary battery set the standard for all heavy cruisers from the 1890s to the days of the guided missile. The U.S.S. Olympia, (C-6, later C-15) is the only U.S. ship to have served in the Spanish-American War, in World War I, and in the attempt to crush Russian Bolshevism in 1919. This last service alone should qualify the ship as a permanent landmark, because if there is anything the world should thank America for, it has to be our largely steadfast opposition to Soviet tyranny and oppression. Ask anybody from Eastern Europe, a place where the Americans – though not necessarily the British – are still the “good guys.” For that matter, ask any Russian who isn’t running for office. He or she may tell you they won the war by themselves, but if they’re lucid, they won’t defend the system they were defending. The U.S.S. Olympia carried the remains of the Unknown Soldier of World War I back to America from the war-torn battlefields of France. This is a “heritage ship” from the industrial era just as the U.S.S. Constitution and U.S.S. Constellation are “heritage ships” from the days of George Washington and James Madison. If you want to see the U.S.S. Olympia, you will have to get to Philadelphia before March 31. At that point, if somebody hasn’t demonstrated serious interest in a restoration, the ship that won the battle of Manila Bay, protected ships against U-boats, showed the flag against the Bolsheviks, and brought the Unknown Soldier home, will be made into a reef. I suspect that the cost of restoring the U.S.S. Olympia may be less important in preserving it than demonstrating the desire of Americans to save a piece of our history. This isn’t as simple as pennies for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, which was a no-brainer until George W. Bush told us to hate France because the French tried to warn us about Iraq. A couple of the wars this ship served in were arguably gratuitous, but the ship served. The U.S.S. Olympia should have earned a permanent place in the hearts of all Americans. Our first priority in times like these should be to make sure that nobody starves and nobody freezes. After that, I think a program that saves America’s most precious historical treasures, whether supporting projects like the restoration of the U.S.S. Olympia and the tower at Pearl Harbor with the Pacific Aviation Museum, or by buying up Civil War battlefields and fending off strip malls and townhouses with the Civil War Preservation Trust, is important. The politicians can chase down the voters by promising every kid, however dense or reluctant, a college education that probably won’t lead to a real job. Jobs tend to follow manufacturing or agriculture, and the politicians have sold us out twice in that regard. Conversely, restoring heritage ships and national landmark buildings will provide handson jobs for skilled and unskilled workers and will bring paying tourists to the restaurants and hotels in the vicinity, rewarding people who do useful work rather than subsidizing people who sit in classes all day with their eyelids at half mast. It’s up to the people who love America to save the U.S.S. Olympia. The people who love art, culture, and self-education have already saved Abu Simbel, Dendur, WQXR, and PBS. Once upon a time, I made a meaningful contribution to the history of the world, and tried to make a meaningful contribution to the history of the United States. When I was about 10 years old, a couple of kids in France organized a fund drive to try to save the Egyptian temple at Abu Simbel. The Aswan Dam was projected to inundate the colossal shrine to the monumental ego of Ramses II. I slipped a couple of dollars into an envelope and mailed my donation to preserve the temple. About the same time, the U.S.S. Enterprise, once the only operational aircraft carrier we had afloat in the Pacific, was slated to be broken up for scrap. This ship was more than a floating antique by the 1950s. It was a sea-going national hero. I slipped a couple of dollars into an envelope and mailed this one to Washington. The French kids motivated the kids of the world – and their governments – to save Abu Simbel. Enough money poured in from art lovers and history buffs around the world to retain a West German engineering company to meticulously disassemble the four colossal statutes of Ramses – one of them broken in antiquity – and reassemble them nearby. The project was such a success that people who see Abu Simbel today don’t even know it has been moved. The Egyptians were grateful for the money that flowed into the project from around the world and they bestowed smaller monuments on a number of the donor countries. The United States, which provided a substantial amount of the money, received the Temple of Dendur, a Roman-era temple now located at the terminus of the vast Egyptian collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I go there whenever I get the chance and marvel over the fact that, in a miniscule way, I took part in saving Abu Simbel and in bringing the Temple of Dendur to New York City. I would rather have brought it to Northwest Bergen County, but we really don’t have any place to put it. In the case of the U.S.S. Enterprise, not enough flagwavers cared about the ship that helped save Midway and Hawaii in 1942. However, enough genuine patriots, some of us little kids, some of us grizzled old sailors, cared to donate the money that saved the fantail, which is now in Montvale, effectively mooning the public’s apathy toward military veterans, whether human or inanimate. The Navy saved the tripod bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise and uses it to stand sentinel over the football stadium at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The rest of the ship was scrapped and made into Toyotas. Savor the irony. I’ve been a good boy since then, too. About 18 months ago, I was devastated to learn that WQXR, the last classical music radio station in New York, which is to say the United States, was about to close down after losing too many sponsors to remain viable. This time, I wrote a check instead of slipping a couple of singles in an envelope. The classical station was saved, and moved to a different location. The radio my wife has set up in the kitchen sometimes picks up staccato police chatter along with Mozart and Beethoven, but the big radio in the living room receives classical music most of the time, 24 hours a day, along with Preserving our history helps enrich our future Letters to the Editor Organization grateful for donations Dear Editor: Ramsey Responds recently sponsored a Food Drive to help those in need in the community of Ramsey. We received extremely generous donations of food and grocery gift cards. We would like to thank the following for their assistance in making our event a huge success: The Junior Woman’s Club of Ramsey, The Ramsey Knights of Columbus, Berkeley College, the Ramsey Senior Citizens, Dater School PTO, Hubbard School PTO, Smith School faculty, and the Ramsey High School National Honor Society, as well as the numerous private donors who sent bags of food, frozen turkeys, and monetary gifts to help their fellow Ramsey neighbors. The kind support of the community through this event reminds us all that we are lucky to live in a town where people care about each other. We are proud that Ramsey Responds has such strong local support. Thank you. Cathy Calabria, Chairperson Ramsey Responds Dear Editor: I am a great admirer of the extremely well written columns by John Koster, a/k/a the Outlaw Journalist. I look forward to receiving the Villadom TIMES and turn to his column first thing. His intellect and remarkable research are quite admirable and really set him apart from most other writers. Keep up the great work! Joseph J. Felice Waldwick It is the policy of the Villadom TIMES to have a signed copy of letters to the editor in our files. Please fax a signed copy to (201) 670-4745 or drop a signed copy in the mail to Villadom Times, P.O. Box 96, Midland Park, NJ 07432. Signed letters may also be dropped off at our office located at 333 Godwin Avenue in Midland Park. Thank you. Enjoys column Dear Editor: Thank you for putting the picture of the beautiful painting of “The Nativity” by Botticelli with St. Luke 11, verses 6 to 7 underneath (on the front page of the Dec. 22 edition of the Villadom Times). In this secular leaning world, where people are timid or afraid to say “Merry Christmas” it is heartening and uplifting to see a public paper display the reason we celebrate this joyous time of the year. I appreciate what you did. Thank you. Joan Carnevale Ho-Ho-Kus Appreciates cover Welcomes your press releases photographs ��������������������� ��������������������������������������� ����������������������������� �������������������������������������