Posted on 05/25/2002 11:16:21 AM PDT by redrock
In a couple of days...Memorial Day will be here.
A time for our families to get together...to laugh...to have a three day weekend. To maybe drink and be merry.
But,perhaps, a time to take stock of where we are....of what is happening to our Country....of perhaps even WHO we are as a people.
A tremendous number of men,women...AMERICANS..paid the ultimate price for our Freedom.
They went willingly into "harms way" to help create this Country.
They went willingly into "harms way" to sustain this Country.
And yet....they are forgotten..hidden from view..in V.A. Hospitals...in back rooms....in Graves unvisited.
Written in a Japanese POW camp in Mongolia at great peril to his life by a Bataan Death March survivor.
A SOLDIER
A soldier is a nobody, we here lots of people say.
He is the outcast of the world and always in the way.
We admit there are bad ones from the Army to the Marines,
but the majority you will find, the most worthy ever seen.
Most people condemn the soldier when he stops to take a drink or two,
but does a soldier condemn you, when you stop to take a few.
Now don't scorn the soldier but clasp him by the hand,
for the uniform he wears means protection to our land.
The goverment picks its soldier from the million far and wide,
so please place him as your equal good buddies side by side.
When a soldier goes to battle you cheer him on the way,
you say he is a hero when in the ground he lay.
But the hardest battle of the soldier is in the time of peace,
when all mock and scorn him and treat him like a beast.
With these few lines we close sir, we hope we don't offend
but when you meet a soldier just treat him like a friend.
"Author Unknown" Bataan/Corregidor
Obtained from and Thanks to:
D.M. Barger [ex-FTG-1[SS]] who obtained it in turn from
CMSC Brown, USAF Ret.
The youngest survivor of the Bataan Death March.
=========================
This weekend...go to an Retirement Home...a Nursing Home and talk to these "warriors"....just chat. LET THEM KNOW YOU CARE!!!!
Go to a V.A. Hospital....and find a Vietnam Vet. Look them in the eyes and tell them "WELCOME HOME". The emotions will be intense...but worth it.
When the MEMORIAL DAY Parade is on....stand on the sidelines and CHEER when the old men (made old by what they witnessed) walk or ride by.
We all have a couple of hours to spare this weekend. I challenge you to show those men who " Guarded the Bridge.." that you know they exist.
=========
redrock
redrock
redrock
redrock
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Excerpt from the Dedication of Soldier Monument at Gorham October 18, 1866
"AMERICA REMEMBERS": VetsCor/FRN Memorial Day Project
National Cemeteries, Memorial Day Ceremonies, & Military Installation Locators
"AMERICA REMEMBERS": Sample Promotion Letter - Please Send Out
From "HORATIUS", by Thomas B. MaCaulay (1800-1859) For reference.
Regards to all, Buck
Joyce Kilmer (poet - Trees)
"In memory of Rupert Brooks" by Joyce Kilmer.
His body lies that was so fair and young.
His mouth is stopped, with half his songs unsung:
His arm is still, that struck to make men free.
But let no cloud of lamentation be
Where, on a warrior's grave, a lyre is hung.
We keep the echoes of his golden tongue,
We keep the vision of his chivalry.
WW I 42 Rainbow Division- Later Killed in Action 1918
Last stanza of "Soldier" by John Steven McGroarty, (1933)
Mrs Kus
BURY ME WITH SOLDIERS
I've played a lot of roles in life;
I've met a lot of men,
I've done a lot of things I'd like to think I
Wouldn't do again.
And though I'm young, I'm old enough
To know someday I'll die.
And to think about what lies beyond,
Beside whom I would lie.
Perhaps it doesn't matter much;
Still if I had my choice,
I'd want a grave 'mongst
Soldiers when
At last death quells my voice.
I'm sick of the hypocrisy
Of lectures of the wise.
I'll take the man, with all the flaws,
Who goes, though scared, and dies.
The troops I knew were commonplace
They didn't want the war;
They fought because their fathers and
Their fathers had before.
They cursed and killed and wept...
God knows
They're easy to deride...
But bury me with men like these;
They faced the guns and died.
It's funny when you think of it,
The way we got along.
We'd come from different worlds
To live in one where no one belongs,
I didn't even like them all;
I'm sure they'd all agree.
Yet I would give my life for them,
I know some did for me..
So bury me with soldiers, please,
Though much maligned they be.
Yes, bury me with soldiers, for
I miss their company.
We'll not soon see their likes again;
We've had our fill of war.
But bury me with men like them
Till someone else does more.
-Author unknown
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You don't source the quote in your headline, but it sounds like it comes from one of the accounts of the battles of Lexington and Concord, 19 April, 2002. The statue of the Minuteman stands in front of the bridge at Lexington, where the second shooting of the day occurred in that town.
The first "Shot Heard Round the World" was fired before dawn, before 5 a.m. when the British regulars were going through Lexington on their way to Concord. After the British were turned back at Concord by the Minutemen there, they retreated under fire to Boston, and a second and larger skirmish took place at the Lexington Bridge.
I am mindful of this event because I just received the first version of the cover of my next book. It is a drawing of the Minuteman, with the Lexington Green and its "skyline" far behind him. The title is, "These are the times that try men's souls." The subtitle is, "America -- Then and Now -- in the Words of Tom Paine." I am the editor, a Russian artist, Olga Calco, is the illustrator.
I think FReepers and some others (I hesitate to say "many others") will appreciate the message of this book. It speaks to the same theme as your post. It's opening passage is:
"These are the times that try men's souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will,
In this crisis, shrink from the service of his country;
but he that stands it NOW,
Deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
Yet we have this consolation with us,
That the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:
'Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value."
Tom Paine, The American Crisis, I, 19 December, 1776
Congressman Billybob
The poetry excerpts are fine. ;^)
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