Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • October 10, 2012 counterfeit $100 bill. Hold me up to a strong light and see Abraham Lincoln close to my heart. I strongly support solar panels on modern buildings and on utility poles, but this is about the worst place for a solar field that I can imagine. The Navy should give this Ford Island Field project the axe and move the solar panel field to someplace where the panels will not impact on the 200,000 people who visit the Pacific Aviation Museum every year. The men who flew those airplanes really were heroes. One thinks of Lieutenant Commander John Waldron, “the old Sioux.” He was half Lakota and was raised primarily by his mother’s Lakota relatives. Waldron, an Annapolis graduate and experienced aviator, led his squadron, Torpedo 8, from the U.S.S. Hornet and found the Japanese fleet approaching Midway in June 1942. Waldron led his squadron in for the first attack. Every outmoded Douglas Devastator torpedo plane in Torpedo 8 was shot down. Waldron and all his men but one, Ensign George Gay, were killed. Torpedo 6, the next squadron in, was also virtually destroyed. Ensign Gay hid under a life raft in the middle of the Japanese fleet and watched as the American bombers, drawn by Waldron’s radio message, swooped down and destroyed all four Japanese aircraft carriers and saved Hawaii from invasion. Gay never became a fan of Japan, but he venerated Waldron and lauded his dead buddies as heroes betrayed. When Gay heard that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died, he burst out laughing with joy. A lot of people who served agreed with him. Turning Ford Island Field into Lego-Land with parts made in China would not have appealed to the Americans who felt betrayed by the Pearl Harbor attack. Pearl Harbor is not the only historic site at risk. The new federal budget calls for a reduction of 8.3 percent - $183 million -- to be taken out of the operation of the National Parks. This is perhaps as dumb as it gets. Not only do the National Parks encourage Americans to love and appreciate America, but they also encourage foreign tourists to come here and spend their money here. As the country’s manufacturing base dwindles, we are going to need those tourist dollars. Here is a suggestion: Everybody who has any spare money should join at least one historic preservation group to the extent of wielding the pen over the checkbook while waving the flag. Civil War battlefields are very much at risk. The National Parks system was founded in the aftermath of concern for the proper burial of the soldiers who died in the Civil War. Most soldiers before then had been buried where they fell. Officers were sometimes sent to West Point or the family cemetery. But the casualties of 1861-65 were so enormous that a national effort was needed to give those who could be found a proper burial. The work goes on today as the places where they fought and died are protected by the Civil War Trust, which purchases section of battlefields that might otherwise be developed and which sometimes contain unmarked graves. The Civil War Trust also publishes “Hallowed Ground,” which keeps members up to date on what the successes and the needs of the group are. The Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Association also promotes and protects that most famous of American battlefields, the Little Bighorn. Not at all hostile to Indians -- the Indians sometimes come out for get-togethers and reenacted battles -- the group includes a number of serious scholars and keeps members abreast of anything related to Custer. This battlefield also needs protection. The Pacific Aviation Museum, now engaged in preventing Ford Island Field from turning into a giant solar panel, is another worthwhile group and maintains an impressive collection of World War II aircraft and memorabilia. We need to preserve the sites, including Antietam and Gettysburg, so new generations are inspired to try to find out what really happened and not buy into misleading hack newspaper stories and political sound bites. Every American should work to save at least one park. Perhaps together we can save America. Remember Pear Harbor? Cherish that memory. The U.S. Navy is considering a proposal to turn Ford Island Field into a 4,000-foot field of 60,000 solar panels so the Navy can provide 50 percent of its own electricity by 2020. I will never forget my first interview with Pearl Harbor veterans. I was one of the few young reporters who was a U.S. veteran. I tucked my Japanese wife’s photograph deep into my pocket and parked my Toyota three blocks away behind a thick hedge as I approached the Pearl Harbor Reunion picnic in Mahwah. I expected to hear the worst, but what I heard was literally life-changing. The men at the picnic, who were in their late fifties or early sixties, were mostly survivors of the same U.S. Army anti-aircraft battery based in Hawaii. Most of them had been drafted from the five boroughs of New York and had moved to Bergen County after the war. They were largely second-generation Americans -- mostly Irish or German, with a couple of Italians and a Greek. They loved America and thought America was the greatest country on Earth. They also told me that Pearl Harbor was a setup and that they and their buddies who died were victims of an American plot. Remember: These were flag-waving U.S. combat veterans, not pacifists or political extremists. “Everybody knew there was gonna be a war,” one guy told me. “What else were we there for -- the climate?” “They wanted it to happen,” another man said. “In out battery, they had the ammunition boxes locked. When the (Japanese) started to fly over, one of the officers had to run to his quarters for his .45 and shot the lock off the ammo box so we could load the guns.” “They set us up,” the leader said. He did not refer to the Japanese. A few days later, I read an article in a different paper, and all the same guys could talk about was how surprised they were. I was surprised this morning when I read that the Navy has decided to turn Ford Island Field into a giant solar energy system. On the heartening side, those who remember the veterans refused to roll over and play dead. “We totally agree with being green, but we don’t think they should do it where Americans spilled their red blood,” said Ken DeHoff, director of the Pacific Aviation Museum, which is located near the same field. “There’s plenty of room for them to create their project off to the west, which is just scrub oak and abandoned land.” Another spokesperson compared the predictable appearance of Ford Island Field, abandoned by the Navy in 1999, to an enormous bunch of Legos. Nobody in the preservationist community thought this was a good idea, and some of them -- all of them patriotic, many of them long-term veterans of whom we can be proud -- found it infuriating and disrespectful. But the solar panels for the project, estimated at $50 million, are made in an Asian country that is definitely not Japan or South Korea, and considering the leanings of the U.S. State Department, the chances of deflecting this insult to Americans is going to take some major opposition. If I were any greener, I would be mistaken for a large Saving America one park at a time Glen Rock Roundup Learn to thwart hungry deer Bob Malgieri of Borst Landscaping will present “Deer Prevention: Protecting Your Trees and Shrubs from Hungry Deer” on Wednesday, Oct. 24. Malgieri will share tips and strategies to deal with this gardening challenge. The program will begin at 7 p.m. at the Glen Rock Public Library, which is located at 315 Rock Road. To register, call (201) 670-3970. Seniors plan meeting, events The Saint Catharine Association of Mature Parishioners will meet on Thursday, Oct. 18 in the church’s community hall at 905 Maple Avenue in Glen Rock. The group will gather at 2 p.m. On Nov. 1, there will be a Day of Recollection in the church’s community hall. This program will begin 11 a.m. RSVP to Mary at (201) 791-3812. The group will host its annual Christmas Party at the Brownstone in Paterson on Dec. 20. To make a reservation for this noon event, contact Bob at (201) 444-1024. Local florist to address gardeners Local florist Walter Perry will present “Downy Mildew of Impatiens: What Next?” to the Glen Rock Garden Club on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 7:45 p.m. The group will meet at the Glen Rock Municipal Annex at 678 Maple Avenue. At the meeting, Perry will also award two $25 gift certificates. This free program is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call (201) 447-6099. Library seeks residents’ input The Glen Rock Public Library is seeking assistance from residents for its strategic planning. Patrons are asked to fill out the library’s survey, which is available at glenrock. bccls.org. The survey will be available through Oct. 13. For more information, call the library at (201) 670-3970. Trips are open to non-members. Press releases for this column may be e-mailed to editorial@villadom.com. Deadline is Wednesday at noon. the song Kirk Douglas made famous in the Disney version. Dawson, an award-winning playwright and experienced off-Broadway actor and director, said he and his colleagues created Raconteur Radio as a way to bring interactive theater to a young and receptive audience. “You noticed that you had to work along with us to use your imaginations and see what the sounds told you about?” he asked the youngsters after the show. Many of the children nodded, and he and the cast were mobbed for autographs and a look at the props -- which never showed up on stage. The actors, simply dressed mostly in black, gestured a bit and let the text and their voices do the rest. “The lights are cool. How do you make the shadows work?” asked Charlie Glazer, a Ridgewood youngster. “The shadows are just serendipitous because this is a good location,” Dawson explained. “You can do this at home.” Raconteur Radio specializes in timeless audiencepleasers from Victorian times. Many of the tales are best known to the general public from 1930s movies or vintage radio. Visit www.RaconteurRadio.com. Captain Nemo (continued from page 9) Hetzler penciled this out, suggesting the submarine attack empty slave ships instead. Then the U.S. Civil War ended. When Captain Nemo turned up in “The Mysterious Island” a few years later, he was Prince Dakkar, a Hindu whose family had been murdered by the British -- a disclosure not translated into the English-language versions of the novel. In the Disney version, Nemo’s enemies were never identified, but the imagery and the atomic bomb at the climax tilted back toward Russia. The “monster” turns out to be a 20th century submarine operating in 1866. At the bottom of the sea, the mysterious Captain Nemo treats Arronax and Land to a tour during which they feast on “sauté of unborn octopus” and smoke cigars made of seaweed. The electronic special effects and stage lighting held the audience’s attention and, after a commercial break, the children sang and clapped through “A Whale of a Tale,”