Posted by Sherri_NWA on 4/5/06 10:16am
Msg #111173
o/t this is really cool.
In honor of those that have protected us throughout the years.
Before they go.
Sorry, this is a little lengthy.
http://www.managedmusic.com/beforeyougo.html
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.
Cut to today.
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. "Every
ethnic minority would be dead. And the 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.
Turn up your volume and please visit
~Sherri
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Reply by cfwMI on 4/5/06 4:02pm
Msg #111315
Thank you. My father, who lives with me, (going to be 84 on the 30th) was one of the first Navy Seals. He would never talk about it, still doesn't say to much, but until a few years ago my sister and I took scrap metal out of his back. And, because most of his assignments were top secret, he never got the Purple Heart or recognition that he deserved.
I am so damn proud to be his daughter! He is a man of silent courage, was then and is still today. Thank you for sharing.
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