As Horner sang his first two songs, the veterans, family members of victims and community members wiped away tears. But as he started the first verse of the third song, they began to stand.
By the time he reached the refrain, the survivors, families and guests were on their feet. They raised their arms, holding hands as many mouthed the words: "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."
The rest of the story is at the Jacksonville Daily News
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'It's 25 years later, and it's still no easier'
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'No time to think': Survivors remember Beirut bombing
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Jacksonville Daily News Portal to 25th Anniversary Memorial Pictures of the Beirut Massacre
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FOR MY BROTHER: REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION, 1943
By Father Thomas Merton
Sweet brother, if I do not sleep
My eyes are flowers for your tomb;
And if I cannot eat my bread,
My fasts shall live like willows where you died.
If in the heat I find no water for my thirst,
My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveller.
Where, in what desolate and smokey country,
Lies your poor body, lost and dead?
And in what landscape of disaster
Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?
Come, in my labor find a resting place
And in my sorrows lay your head,
Or rather take my life and blood
And buy yourself a better bed —
Or take my breath and take my death
And buy yourself a better rest.
When all the men of war are shot
And flags have fallen into dust,
Your cross and mine shall tell men still
Christ died on each, for both of us.
For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain,
And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring;
The money of Whose tears shall fall
Into your weak and friendless hand,
And buy you back to your own land:
The silence of Whose tears shall fall
Like bells upon your alien tomb.
Hear them and come: they call you home.