Finneran: The Noble Lie
Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™
Finneran: The Noble Lie
He was not alone. They were legion. They are legends.
The year was 1941. Way out in the Pacific Ocean eight United States battleships lay in smoking ruin. It was a deadly stroke by the Imperial Japanese Navy but not quite deadly enough. Pearl Harbor was a bold brilliant tactical success for Japan. It was also strategic folly, bordering on suicide.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTJapan’s sudden huge advantage, born of treachery, proved temporary. The United States aircraft carriers---Lexington, Saratoga, and Enterprise---were far out at sea when the Japanese planes roared in over the lagoon, escaping damage and creating anxiety in the Japanese high command. The United States Navy was not quite dead.
Those carriers lurked somewhere in the vast Pacific, waiting to exact revenge. That revenge would come seven months later at Midway, a story for another time.
The wisest Japanese leader of all---Yamamoto---had cautioned the firebrands in Japan’s military circles that an attack on the United States would awaken a sleeping giant. He likened the United States to a gigantic boiler which once aroused would produce a vast array of ships, planes, tanks, and guns which no other nation could produce or withstand. Yamamoto, along with Roosevelt and Churchill, knew instinctively that American industry, once put on a war footing, could not be stopped. Roosevelt’s phrase---“the arsenal of democracy”--- and Churchill’s declaration---“American hammers and lathes signal in a rising hum the promise of swift and ever-growing aid”---put the world on notice that isolationist and indifferent America was indifferent no more.
What no leader could foresee was the furious arousal of the American people---men, women, and children alike. Pacificists and isolationists on that fateful Sunday morning were as warlike as Attila on the very next day.
Enter American manhood, enter the noble liar.
American men of a certain age had been subject to military draft only for a short period of time as the country moved in belated acknowledgement of the consuming furies of Germany and its Axis partners.
But American pride and American anger would not be constrained by mere age. Young American boys---yes, boys---reacted with the righteous indignation reserved for the cruelest of bullies. Japan’s sucker-punch at Pearl Harbor brought thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen year old boys to America’s recruiting stations. They lied about their age, puffing out their bony chicken chests and telling fib after fib to harried recruiting masters.
They were good liars. Many of them succeeded in their lie and they served with pride and distinction. They served in every theater of the war and they became men very quickly. War will do that to you.
Those once young boys are dying rapidly now. A friend’s father---enlisted at the age of 15---died last week. Many of these old men have already gone to their graves and the survivors of that horrid but necessary war dwindle with each passing day. Soon they will all be gone.
My friend’s father was 92. Few of us will ever make it that far. God calls most of us earlier than that.
It’s hard to imagine in today’s America but these now old men were just boys once upon that fateful time. They broke God’s commandment---“thou shalt not lie”---and they likely lied to their parents as well, certainly to their mothers. That they did lie was to their patriotic credit. That they did lie was to their country’s gain. That they did lie became for others an escape from the yoke of tyranny and an entry to a life of liberty.
They were a humanitarian youth. They told noble lies. They lived noble lives. They have died noble deaths.
Thank God for the noble liars. They saved their country and they saved the world.
May they all rest in peace.
25 Ways to Celebrate Veterans in RI & New England - 2016
Operation Stand Down's Boots on the Ground Memorial
Operation Stand Down RI (OSDRI) will host the first annual Boost on the Ground for Heroes Memorial this Memorial Day weekend from Friday, May 27 at 5 p.m. to Monday May 30 at 4 p.m. Overall, OSDRI will place 6,844 boots in the field by the Temple to Music at Roger Williams Park throughout the weekend.
A formal ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 28 at 11 a.m. where Sgt. Major Todd Parisi will deliver the keynote address.
The event will honor all of Rhode Island's veterans American heroes who were killed in action defending the country during the war on terror by marking their lives with a boot, a flag and a name placard.
Click here for more information.
North Kingstown Wreath Laying
The North Kingstown Wreath laying will take place on Monday at Civl War Memorial at North Kingstown Town Hall as well as at memorials at Veterans Memorial Park.
Those ceremonies will take place at 9 a.m.
PHOTO: Presidio of Monterey/flickr
Charlestown Parade
The Charlestown Parade begins on Sunday at 1 p.m. starting from Cross Mills, Old Post Road and goes to Ninigret Park.
Once at the park, ceremonies and a concert by the Wakefield Concert Band will take place at 2 p.m.
Warwick Jewish Veterans Observance
The Warwick Jewish Veterans Observance will take place on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Lincoln Park Cemetery on Post Road.
Foster Parade and Wreath Laying
The Foster Memorial Day Parade and wreath laying will kick off at 8:45 a..m. on Monday from the Foster Center and North roads and go to the Ben Eddy Building.
There will also be a speaking program and the unveiling of a monument that is dedicated to World War II veterans who were originally from Foster.
Avenue of Flags at Pawtuxet Memorial Park in Warwick
The Avenue of Flags at Pawtuxet Memorial Park in Warwick consists of over 300 American flags lining the streets in the park.
Hours for the Avenue of Flags are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting on Saturday and ending on Monday.
It is FREE.
Pawtucket Veterans' Council Ceremony
The Pawtucket Veterans' Council Ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park at Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street.
Flag Retirement Ceremony in Little Compton
The flag retirement ceremony will take pace at post home on the commons in Little Compton at 2 p.m.
During the event, the public is invited to bring worn flags to burn.
Following that, there will be a memorial service at Acoxet Chapel in Westport at 7 p.m.
North Providence Parade
The North Providence Memorial Day Parade begins at 1 p.m. on Monday starting from North Providence High School on Mineral Spring Avenue and ends a Governor John Notte Jr. Park.
The parade will be followed by a short ceremony and then entertainment and food in the park from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Lincoln Memorial Day Parade
Lincoln's Memorial Day Parade begins at 11 a.m. on Monday starting from Smithfield and Reservoir avenues and finishes at the Industrial Circle to Walker Street.
1876 Tribute Re-enactment and Procession
Mystic Seaport in Mystic Connecticut will put on a re-enactment by costumed role-players of an 1876 tribute and procession honoring those who had fallen in the Civil War on Monday.
The reenactment includes the roll of the dead in Fishtown Chapel, observance in Greenmanville Church and a procession to Middle Wharf as well as music of the Civil War fife and drum program.
The entire day goes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony
The Portsmouth Memorial Day Parade and ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. starting at Parent Avenue parking lot and will conclude with a ceremony at South Street Cemetery.
Bangor, Maine Memorial Day Parade
The Bangor Maine Memorial Day Parade will begin at 10:15 a.m. starting on Exchange Street.
The parade will proceed north on Exchange street and finish on Main Street.
Immediately following the parade there will be a ceremony at Davenport Park.
PHOTO: Davenport Park
Seekonk Memorial Day Parade
The Seekonk Memorial Day Parade kicks off at 10 a.m. on Saturday from Seekonk High School and ends at Dr. Kevin Hurley Middle School.
Following the parade, there will be a dedication of the Seekonk Veterans Memorial next tot the Seekonk Library. The dedication takes place at Noon.
Witness for Peace Concert in New London Connecticut
The Witness for Peace Concert will take place at 10 a.m. on State and Bank Streets in New London on Monday. The concert will feature a soldiers and sailors memorial.
Battleship Cove in Fall River
Battleship Cove in Fall River will host an observance at noon in order to honor and remember the men and women who dedicated and dedicate their lives to protecting the country.
The ceremony will consist of a the raising of the flag from half staff as well as a 21 gun salute.
The ceremony is FREE and open to the public.
Garden of Flags in Boston
Every year, the Massachusetts Military Heroes organization plants a Garden of Flags, over 37,000 of them in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common.
Flags have been planted since May 25 and will remain until sundown on May 30.
Hubbardton, Vermont Memorial Day Remembrance
At noon, battlefield flags will be raised to full-mast and tribute paid at the battle monument to the soldiers of Hubbardton.
The event will go from 12 p.m. to 12:15 p.m.
PHOTO: Vermont.gov
Shrewsbury Memorial Day Parade
The Shrewsbury Memorial Day Parade will start at 9:30 a.m. on Monday from the Richard Carney Municipal Office building and makes several stops along the way.
The parade stops at Soldier's Statue in front of the Police Station on Maple Ave, War Memorial at the Town Center and at the Veterans Lot at Mountain View Cemetery.
At this year's ceremony, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor, Karyn Polito will speak at the Town Center.
Charlton Memorial Day Parade
The Charlton Memorial Day Parade will start at 2 p.m. on Monday rain or shine. The parade will begin at the Masonic Home and proceed to the front of the town's Library at Dexter hall.
Manchester, New Hampshire, Memorial Day Parade
The Manchester Memorial Day Parade will be begin at 2 p.m. starting at Webster Street. The parade will conclude with a wreath laying ceremony at Veterans Park.
PHOTO: Nasa/flickr
Portland, Memorial Day Parade
Portland Memorial Day Parade begins at 10:15 a.m. at Longfellow Square and proceeds down Congress Street to Monument Square where ceremonies will take place.
PHOTO: Maine.gov
Essex Junction Vermont Memorial Day Parade
The parade begins at 10 a.m. and leaves out of Champlain Valley Exposition gate F. The parade will end at the dispersal area in Pearl St.
70th Annual Memorial Day Services
The 70th Annual Memorial Day Services will be held on Saturday, May 28 at a11 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park in the Back Bay Fens in Boston's Fenway neighborhood.
Leicester Memorial Day Parade
The Leicester Memorial Day Parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Memorial School and proceeding north on Pleasant Street tot he Town Common where ceremonies will be held.
