This morning, on the eve of Memorial
Day, a beautiful new bronze plaque honoring Needham’s young men who died in service
to our great country was dedicated in the high school’s foyer. Dr. Jonathan Pizzi, Needham High School
principal, shared the following remarks at the solemn ceremony:
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| WWII Vets unveil new memorial |
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| Students read off names of the 97 Fallen Brave |
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Honored Guests, Town Officials, Colleagues, students, and most importantly, Veterans
of Our Armed Forces:
It is with great
pride and honor, as well as with a deep sense of sorrow, gratitude, and respect
that Needham High School is able to provide once again a rightful and
conspicuous place with which to honor our community’s Fallen Brave. These individuals answered a call and lived
and died knowing that they were fighting for a set of ideals and a cause that
transcended their own individual interests.
They knew that the creation and then the very existence of this great
nation depended upon their acting against human nature and advancing toward
situations from which others fled in terror.
In many ways today’s
enemies of freedom are not as readily identifiable as a Confederate Raider or a
Panzer tank. Of course the omnipresent
threats of war and terrorism force us to live in a state of constant vigilance and
anxiety regarding our personal safety. To
my students especially, however, I offer this: pervasive individualism, moral
relativism, indeed the intrusive practices of our own government agencies, threaten
the very freedoms for which the 97 individuals named here fought and gave their
lives. The ideals of our Founding
Fathers as spelled out in our Constitution are ours to study, to practice, and
above all, to protect. Consequently,
and more so than the acquisition of any amount of material wealth, the
education you receive here bestows upon each of you the responsibility to grow
your intelligence, your critical thinking, and your participation in our
democracy so that the new enemies of our way of life – and there are many - can
be defeated at every turn.
In his memoirs,
Winston Churchill penned the following words to describe the deluge of emotion
that swept over him after learning of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941: “Saturated and satiated with emotion and
sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful, for I
knew I was now on the winning side.”
Long after this
dedication ceremony has concluded and as we gaze and reflect upon this memorial
to the 97 Fallen Brave, let us remember our quintessential responsibility to
protect our basic American ideals and rights and allow ourselves to be swept up
in the same emotions of sadness, relief, and gratitude as Britain’s then Prime
Minister, and never, ever take for granted that whether at Bunker Hill,
Antietam, Meuse-Argonne, the Ardennes Forest, the Pussan Perimeter, or Khe San,
these soldiers and sailors made the ultimate sacrifice that we may ever sleep
the sleep of the saved and thankful. Thank
you.
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| James H. Powers, USMC and WWII Veteran, honors his brother Pete who died in the Battle of the Bulge |