I am off to the dedication of the plaques for the lads who were lost from Engine 33, and Ladder 9 (song posted on the cat) and then that evening to a silent meeting (Quakes) As to the other tragidy, if I drank, I'd offer the above toast as well.\ La lucha continua, and Remember brave folks who gave their lives selflessly as well.
Peace
Larry

PS well here it is again...

Engine 33
Words Lorcan Otway tune Bold Robert Emmitt all rights reserved


Flashing lights and no sirens, all emergencies over
The motorcade passes, with the heroes who fell
And all on the streets stop, and in silence bear witness
Such sorrow and thanks, no mere words can tell

Who ever can forget the gray ash covered engines
coming back from the alarm like no other before
Such pain for survivors, to embrace all the families
Of comrades so loved, now on that distant shore

Chief Downey, Father Mike, First Deputy Feehan
Peter Ganci and many, too many, to tell
Your memories we'll honor We n'er will forget you
You brought hope to the horror when the two towers fell.
      

Remember Tim Stackpole, how he prayed in the wreckage
In that terrible fire that took two of his friends
So horribly injured he fought to recover
To return to his ladder and to die with his men

So now to acknowledge, just one of the many
Engine 33 Ladder Company 9
There's 10 empty places around their table
10 fallen brothers who fell on the line

Remember Kev Pfiefer, Mike Boyle and Keith Maynard
Jeff Walz, Brian Bilcher, Robert King, Dave Arce
Gerarde Baptiste, Robert Evans, John Tierney,
10 lost out of 40 from one company

And though we mourn them, they're still on the job now
Though they have fallen, they're still standing tall
Their spirit will bolster their sisters and brothers
Their unseen presence will answer each call

So tell all your children to tell all their children
never pass a firehouse without a brief pause
And thank all the heroes who work on those engines
Each day they risk all in humanity's cause


Scales of Revenge

Words Lorcan Otway tune Bonny May all rights reserved.

Oh America's fired a cruise missile, and it's killed my brother's son
Now I must lay my hopes aside and learn the way of the gun
Oh why and how can they do such things, why bring such grief to me
Now I will go and seek revenge for my faith and my dignity

Oh some men from Saudi Arabia, have killed my old school friend
He was never a part of any war, why bring him this awful end?
Oh why and how can they do such things, why bring this grief to me,
Now I will go and seek revenge for my friend and for my country

Oh the helicopters came last night, and we fled into the dark
But American bullets flew from above, killing my wife, my love,
Oh why and how can they do these things, why bring this grief to me,
As generations of Afghans before, I'll defend this poor country

My son, my son, he will never return, in a foreign war he lies slain
He was fighting for his home and hearth, on some barren Afghani plain
Oh why and how can they do these things, why bring such grief to me
Send troops, send troops, to far Iraq, to stop this insanity

And here I sit and I watch the world, as blood is shed for blood
And I can only wonder why and how can we stem this flood
Oh why, oh how can they do such things, on justice's bloody path,
And who will be left to say in the end, we've balanced the scales at last

Don't stop, don't stop for our martyred dead,
or one inch of blood soaked soil,
But stop, oh stop for the love of your child, in fields of hope now toil
Oh how, oh why can't we begin, by putting grief behind
We can not ever pay for the dead, by paying another in kind.