BEFORE YOU GO

i know it isn't veteran's day, and you probably won't understand why i am adding this to my journal.  a friend, personal, not online, emailed me the following story and link to a song.  i opened it mostly out of respect for my friend, not really interested in reading or hearing something about veterans.  after reading the story and viewing/listening to the slide show, i know now why i opened the email.  too often i disregard the "old" soldiers who fought in past wars, mostly because i knew nothing about the war personally, nor did i know anyone who fought in those early wars.  i grew up during the vietnam era, so ww1 and ww2 were a little foreign to me.  but after this email, i realized that it doesn't matter what war, what era, what men and women....they are all veterans who fought so that i could have the "laid-back" lifestyle that i have.  i can go to my Baptist church, shop at the local mall, say what i feel in my heart, think what i want to think...........live a life of freedom........because of these men and women and what they gave....their time, their sweat, their tears, their futures, and many...their lives.  thank you, all veterans, past and present, for giving me a full life......and thank you for following the example of Jesus, giving of yourselves.........thanks so much.

 

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, FL, 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. 'The WW II soldiers arenow 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.

 

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO HEAR THE SONG AND SEE THE PICTURES: 
  
  Before You Go