BS: Happy Memorial Day...

Subject: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Bobert
Date: 29 May 06 - 08:13 AM

Well, this is the day where we reflect on those who have laid it down for their country...

It's a day that isn't about the rightness or the wrongness of the various wars and conflicts but 100% about the troops...

So, my heart filled with prayers for their families and thanks for all those who have put themselves in harms way...

God bless them all...

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 May 06 - 08:17 AM

In total agreement with Bobert:

May those of the past, present and future who perform their duty for what they believe is right always be remembered, and their sacrifices appreciated.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 May 06 - 08:42 AM

On the hillside of tears, stones stand like soldiers
All at attention, all in a row.
Frozen in time, youthful in pictures,
too brave to stay, too young to go.

So here's to the boys, who all went before me
No honor or glory, can ever repay
the lives that you spent are just tears in showers
and handfuls of flowers, on the last day of May

Though the Valley of Death, did swallow them whole
God let no soul die in vain
When the boundaries of peace, get out of control
May the Angel of Mercy hold fast their names

There's a house with a wall, that's covered in pictures
of all of the children, all of them grown.
There's a woman in that house, who raised all the children
She never can rest easy 'til all are at home.

Here's to the Mothers who pay the ultimate price
forced to live out their lives with grief all the years.
And here's to the Fathers, who comfort their wives
With nothing to offer, but buckets of tears.

Though the Valley of Death, did swallow them whole
God let no soul die in vain
When the boundaries of peace, get out of control
May the Angel of Mercy hold fast their names

In fields of green pastures, they lie by still waters
All at attention, all in a row
Though flesh turns to dust, souls are forever
They restored the order now our cups overflow.

Though the Valley of Death, did swallow them whole
God let no soul die in vain
When the boundaries of peace, get out of control
May the Angel of Mercy hold fast their names


Title: The Last Day of May
Author: Michael Troy
I learned this song from Jed Marum, who has recorded it on his excellent CD Miles From Home. I will perfom it today for the second year in a row at the Beverly National Cemetery. I dedicate my singing of it to the Gold Star Mothers.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Donuel
Date: 29 May 06 - 08:44 AM

No one shall die in vain as long as there is perpetual war.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 May 06 - 08:55 AM

Bobert, over the years here I have said many times that the day is not about your views on any particular war, or war in general. It is about understanding that real people had their lives cut short. Some believed in what they were doing (most I would guess) and some were just kids doing what they thought was expected of them. Some were driven by glory, others just trapped because they had no where to go, no way out. But they all had a Mother, a family, dreams, potential, all the same hopes and fears that we all have. Whether they fought for this country or another, a terrible price was paid for the aspirations of that country. Like it or not, our leaders have the power to send young ones off to die for a cause. If we would but use Memorial Day, or Remembrance Day, or whatever you call it, to ponder and reflect on this terrible truth, perhaps we wouldn't see so much of the war that Donuel reflects on. War, and the lost hopes, dreams, and potentials of our beloved young warriors should only be a last resort. It should be reserved only for those fights for which there is absolutely no other option.

Too brave to stay, too young to go........

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Donuel
Date: 29 May 06 - 09:01 AM

excerpt from the Memorial Day poem:

"If we lived for 700 years instead of 70, wars might be fewer, but Memorial day would last for weeks."

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Jeri
Date: 29 May 06 - 09:24 AM

Just for the record, because, although I like Jed's recording, the words mean more to me the way they were written:


The Last Day of May
©Michael Troy

1. On the hillside of tears
Stones stand like soldiers
All at attention, all in a row
Frozen in time, youthful in pictures
Too brave to stay, too young to go

2. Here's to the boys, that all went before me
No honor or glory, will ever repay
The lives that you spent
Just tears in showers, and hands full of flowers
On the last day in May.

Chorus:
Though the valley of death, did swallow them whole
God let no soul, die in vain
When the boundaries of peace, get out of control
Let the Angel of Mercy, hold close their names.

3. There's a house, with a wall
With all of the pictures, of all of the children
All of them grown
There's a woman in the house
Who raised all the children
Who could never sleep easy, till all where at home

4. Here's to the mothers, who paid the ultimate price
Made to live out their lives, in grief all the years
Here's to the fathers, who comfort their wives
With nothing to offer, but buckets of tears

Chorus

5. In fields of green pastures
They lie by still waters
All at attention, all in a row
Though flesh turned to dust, souls are forever
They've restored the order, at cup's overflow

Chorus

---

There are causes, right or wrong. This isn't about the causes, it's not about the wars, and it's not about the soap box. This is about where bullets and bayonettes meet flesh, and idealism and dreams and hopes and terror and regrets and 'things to do tomorrow' ended. It's about people with faces and names, families and friends.

The world has moved on without them, but we can remember.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: GUEST,Rapaire
Date: 29 May 06 - 09:42 AM

I, a former Sergeant of the Infantry, will breakfast with my father-in-law (Colonel, Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, 2 Bronze Stars, etc.) and a current Colonel in the Nevada National Guard (Gulf I, Gulf II, etc. etc.). We will not mention what we have seen and done because our wives will be there.

After breakfast we will go out to a high school and visit a football field covered with over 2,600 crosses, one for every US citizen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is not a protest -- it was put up by the American Legion, the Marine Corps League, the DAV, the VFW, and other local veterans' groups -- but a visual statement of what is going on now, a reminder to the community.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Peace
Date: 29 May 06 - 09:44 AM

I think the best memorial we could give those who have died in war, because of war, is the assurance that no more of their brothers and sisters-in-arms will have to die because of war. It is indeed the result of the ultimate failure of diplomacy, economics and social justice.


Words and music by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream,
I never dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
I dreamed I saw a mighty room,
The room was filled with men.
And the papers they were signing said
They'd never fight again.

And when the papers were all signed,
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads,
And grateful prayers were made.
And the people in the streets below,
They all danced round and round.
And guns and swords and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground.

Last night I had the strangest dream,
I never dreamed before.
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.
I dreamed I saw a mighty room,
The room was filled with men.
And the papers they were signing said
They'd never fight again.

When I awoke, twas but a dream,
and peace a dirty word
I tried to tell them of my dream,
but not a word they heard
And then I got me fighting mad,
and I knew just what I'd do
I'd fight nonviolently for peace,
until my dream came true.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: The Curator
Date: 29 May 06 - 10:40 AM

A day to remember and honour.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 06 - 11:20 AM

thanks to those of you who say it better than I. It is difficult to process just how important it is to remember the sacrifices of others....those lines of poetry help.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: jimmyt
Date: 29 May 06 - 11:29 AM

I logged on to start a thread with this sentiment. Thank you Bobert, for doing it, and wonderful posts by those moved to comment. It is indeed, a moment to reflect.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 29 May 06 - 07:34 PM

THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD, AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD; AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM, NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN. AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 May 06 - 09:12 PM

I've seen the smiling
Of fortune beguiling,
I've tasted her pleasures,
And felt her decay;
Sweet is her blessing,
And kind her caressing,
But now they are fled
And fled far away.

I've seen the forest
Adorned the foremost,
Wi' flowers o' the fairest
Baith pleasant and gay,
Sae bonnie was their blooming,
Their scent the air perfuming,
But now they are withered away.

I've seen the morning,
With gold hills adorning,
And loud tempests storming,
Before parting day,
I've seen Tweed's silver streams,
Glitt'ring in the sunny beams,
Grow drumlie and dark,
As they roll'd on their way;

O fickle fortune!
Why this cruel sportin?
Oh! Why thus perplex
Us poor sons of a day?
Thy frown canna fear me,
Thy smile canno cheer me,
Since the flowers o' the forest
Are a' wede away.

...The sun's shining down on these green fields of france
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
Tthe trenches have vanished long under the plow
There's no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation was butchered and damned....

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 30 May 06 - 02:44 PM

Thank you everyone. I think of Memorial Day as more generic...to remember refugees, families, the living, the dead..of disaster as well as war..or just our own deceased. I went to a great program at Folklife by Hank Cramer, retired Army Colonel and great singer (he has a new album out of songs sung by soldiers) and he had some Hmong people with him and he told us more than I had known about their bravery, which I will report elsewhere. Also, fate brought me to Olympia right at the time the regular ceremony was ending so I went to the Vietnam memorial there, which is very nice...and they had a very nice ceremony...I slipped the MC a note and said please to also remember the Hmong, and Australians and everyone else I could remember...and also those who served in Guam, Phillipines, Japan (the nurses who pulled the maggots out of the wounded) and the USA.

Hank mentioned the Scottish tradition, which again I had not heard of..of soldiers before battle giving the piper their favorite pipe tune so he could pipe their spirits back to Scotland, since their bodies would remain on the battlefield. Later, in introducing some Hmong musicians, they essentially said the same thing was done by their people. Interesting..possibly universal...but I had not heard of it before.

mg

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: open mike
Date: 30 May 06 - 03:05 PM

and for some,...forever young.....

I was glad to hear Terry Gross's Fresh Air
(NPR radio) about a couple of film makers who were
"imbedded" with an army hospital in Bagdad
who have produced a documentary. very graphic.

and the news today was of some other media
people who gave their lives (or had them taken)
to cover the news.

the victims of war are not restricted to uniformed
and soldiers....

and the wounds are not always physical..
Kate Wolf sings of a song written in
memory of a musician'
s brother who returned
from war (viet name) with
woulnds that were so much harder to heal.

the song is by Cyrus _________(i disremember his last name..)
and although set as a mining disaters
was instpired by a disaster of another sort

where his brother was as if buried alive....

i remember visitied a great uncle in a psych
ward/veteran;'s hosp. who was effected by war

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 May 06 - 03:28 PM

Then there was the incident recently in DC where patrons at a Hilton (I think it was) objected to eating with amputees in the dining room. The amps were there as guests of someone, who did it every Friday....

The dinners continue elsewhere.

Me, I'd have brought the guys with no jaws, the guys who are recovering from belly wounds....

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Memorial Day...
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 May 06 - 04:07 PM

They threw the wrong people out........

Mick