From a veteran friend of mine in my email... and I can't thank him enough for forwarding. I too add my heartfelt and humble thanks to this extraordinarly generation of not only our military members, but the families and nation back home that gave them their unqualified support during these dark years.
I've added more, apologizing to them for the mindless and ungrateful generations and nation we have become. Even then, they rightly point out that they fought, and oh so many many died, even for the privileged to behave as they do. To the very end, they are a cut above what we have become. I shall miss this generation more than words can say.
Mata
Mata
______________________________________________
The Story Behind the Song, BEFORE YOU GO.
The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!Neither was Sam Bierstock.
It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla. , eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. 'I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing,' he said bitterly.
At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, 'Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you.'Then the old soldier began to cry.'
That really got to me,' Bierstock says.
Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful 'Before You Go' does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.
'If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot,' says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. 'The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them.'
The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.'It made me cry,' wrote one veteran's son.
Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss ' the unspeakable horrors' he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. 'I can never thank them enough,' the son wrote. 'Thank you for thinking about them.'
Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web.
They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web.
They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.
GOD BLESS every EVERY veteran...and THANK you to those of you veterans who may receive this!
View the BEFORE YOU GO... Video
No comments:
Post a Comment