Beautiful poem, kind sir. And, oh so very true. I so remember watching my Green Beret and Recon Medic buds before and after their tours and my oh my oh my. I was a WAC during those last years of Vietnam. I term them "The Spitting Years".

Well said, my brother, well said.

Lynne

You believe that Dr. Kevorkian is a VA specialist

HA HA HA HA HA. DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE !!!

Lynne

Warriors Not Forgotten

This if for all you warriors out there. By warriors i mean all who served, are still serving, and will serve soon. Firemen, police, paremedics, doctors, nurses, and anyone who cares to help there fellow man.

I have seen the best and worst of mankind in my short years on earth. Working in a hospital has given me a unique opportunity to see some very horrible things. And some of Gods greatest miracles.

As some of you might know, i and my wife witnessed a bad accident yesterday. And it hit me that i was the first one who stopped. There were serveral cars in front of us. And not one stopped to see if they needed help. That sickens me to no end, and yet, after me were more cars that did. It amazes me how some people can be so hard and uncaring as to watch a truck roll 3 or more times and not have the compassion to stop and help.

Turns out it was two young boys driving the truck. How would you feel if that had been your son or daughter and they died when someone could have helped. The boys were okay, but people driving by didnt know that.

So i wanted to write this to all of us and those that wish to protect and help others. Just had to get this off my chest. How i thank each and everyone of you that care enough to help your fellow man. Thanks to you, i know there are some very good people out there still.

Soldiers fight to protect freedom, fire, police, medics all help keep us safe and protected. They save lifes in many ways.

To those that stop when you see someone in need. You too are true warriors. It takes so little effort to drive by something like that. But it takes so much more to help when someone needs it. Our world is so busy that we dont want to slow down and show some compassion. We lost only a few minutes of our life to help those. And the since of pride and caring i feel today is much more important than missing a few minutes. I am glad those others stopped to help. And to those who didnt, i hope you dont ever need someone and they dont have the heart to stop and help you out.

Ray, One die hard true blue American Military supporter. Member of Troll Hunter Squadron.....Aerial Gunner

[This message was edited by cherryread on Tue, 16 March 2004 at 12:01.]

Good post Ray.

me

I can be sweet... Or Not...

A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain?

He was aghast to discover that it was a mouse trap!

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning, "There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house."

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me; I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house."

"I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, "Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a mouse trap; am I in grave danger, Duh?"

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital.

She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

In the book of Genesis, Cain said about Able his brother to our God "Am I my Brother's keeper?"

"We are all involved in spiritual warfare. We must all have a keen eye out one for another and be willing to make that extra care and encouragement to each other. Copyed by GHG

and Amen.

Excellent Gerald. That is what we are all about here isn't it.

me

I can be sweet... Or Not...

John "The Duke" Wayne on why he loves America:

http://www.mamarocks.com/why_i_love_her.htm
GHG

Brings tears to my eyes

I heard this song today and I thought of you, Lynne, and your sons:

"Can't Stop Loving You" Phil Collins
So you leavin' in
the mornin'
on the early train.

Well I could say
everything's all right
and I could pretend
and say goodbye

Got your ticket
got your suitcase
got your leaving smile

Though I could say that's the way it goes
and I could pretend and you won't know
That I was lying...

Chorus:
Cuz I can't stop loving you
No I can't stop loving you
No I won't stop loving you
Why should I?

Took a taxi
to the station
not a word was said
and I saw you walk across the road
for maybe the last time, I don't know

Feeling humble
heard a rumble on the railway track
and when I hear the whistle blow
I'll walk away and you won't know
that I'll be crying...

Cuz I can't stop loving you
No I can't stop loving you
No I won't stop loving you
Why should I?

Even try,
I'll always be here by your side.
Why, why, why?
I never wanted to say goodbye,
Why even try?
I'm always here, if you change,
change your mind.

So you're leavin'
in the mornin'
on the early train

Well, I could say everything's alright
and I could pretend and say goodbye
But that would be lying...


Cuz I can't stop loving you
No I can't stop loving you
No I won't stop loving you
Why should I?

Why should I?
Why should I?
Why should I, even try?

Cuz I can't stop loving you
No I can't stop loving you
No I won't stop loving you
Why should I?

Why should I?
Why should I?
Dunno why
Why should I?
Why should I, even try?

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

Forgive

Forgive the sun who didn't shine
The sky had asked her in to dine

Forgive the stars that heard your wish
The moon prepared their favorite dish

Forgive the rain for its attack
The clouds have tears they can't hold back



Don't hate the birds 'cause they are free
Don't envy all the things they see

Don't block the wind, but hear its cry
Or else that wind may pass you by

Forgive the storm it means no harm
Could not resist to show its charm



Forgive the earth that never turns
Don't hate the sun, because too much burns

Life intends to not cause pain
The flowers bloom from all the rain

The storm will come and it will pass
The sun that shines, it grows the grass



The wind it cannot help but cry
The stars at night light up the sky

Forgive the world in which we live
We'll all find peace if we forgive.

(Danielle Rosenblatt)

[This message was edited by cherryread on Tue, 16 March 2004 at 12:04.]

Computer Friends

Somehow in this great big world
I found my way to you
My friend across the computer lines
My heart, my soul, that's who.



You try to make me smile
With the mail you send my way.
You never fail to drop a line
Each and every day.



Whenever I have hurried home
With something, I must share,
I find it just so comforting
That you are always there.



Encouragement you give me
And a friendship that is true.
I'm glad my soul while reaching out
Found someone just like you!


Thanks Folks GHG

[This message was edited by cherryread on Tue, 16 March 2004 at 12:05.]

You're a poet and you didn't even know it!

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

That you are fair or wise is vain,
Or strong, or rich, or generous;
You must have also the untaught strain
That sheds beauty on the rose.
There is a melody born of melody,
Which melts the world into a sea:
Toil could never compass it;
Art its height could never hit;
It came never out of wit;
But a music music-born
Well may Jove and Juno scorn.
Thy beauty, if it lack the fire
Which drives me mad with sweet desire,
What boots it? what the soldier's mail,
Unless he conquer and prevail?
What all the goods thy pride which lift,
If thou pine for another's gift?
Alas! that one is born in blight,
Victim of perpetual slight:
When thou lookest on his face,
Thy heart saith, "Brother, go thy ways!
None shall ask thee what thou doest,
Or care a rush for what thou knowest,
Or listen when thou repliest,
Or remember where thou liest,
Or how thy supper is sodden;"
And another is born
To make the sun forgotten.
Surely he carries a talisman
Under his tongue;
Broad are his shoulders, and strong;
And his eye is scornful,
Threatening, and young.
I hold it of little matter
Whether your jewel be of pure water,
A rose diamond or a white,
But whether it dazzle me with light.
I care not how you are dressed,
In the coarsest or in the best;
Nor whether your name is base or brave;
Nor for the fashion of your behavior;
But whether you charm me,
Bid my bread feed and my fire warm me,
And dress up Nature in your favor.
One thing is forever good;
That one thing is Success, --
Dear to the Eumenides,
And to all the heavenly brood.
Who bides at home, nor looks abroad,
Carries the eagles, and masters the sword.

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle.

There was no use in saying "We don't want it; we won’t have it; our forebears left Europe to avoid these quarrels; we have founded a new world which has no contact with the old. "There was no use in that. The long arm reaches out remorselessly, and every one's existence, environment, and outlook undergo a swift and irresistible change. What is the explanation, Mr. President, of these strange facts, and what are the deep laws to which they respond? I will offer you one explanation - there are others, but one will suffice.

The price of greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness, absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their protecting oceans: but one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilised world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes.

If this has been proved in the past, as it has been, it will become indisputable in the future. The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility. Although we live in a period so tumultuous that little can be predicted, we may be quite sure that this process will be intensified with every forward step the United States make in wealth and in power. Not only are the responsibilities of this great Republic growing, but the world over which they range is itself contracting in relation to our powers of locomotion at a positively alarming rate.

We have learned to fly. What prodigious changes are involved in that new accomplishment! Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal (loud laughter) - I mean internal -combustion engine. Where, then, are those broad oceans, those vast staring deserts? They are shrinking beneath our very eyes. Even elderly Parliamentarians like myself are forced to acquire a high degree of mobility.

But to the youth of America, as to the youth of all the Britains, I say "You cannot stop." There is no halting-place at this point. We have now reached a stage in the journey where there can be no pause. We must go on. It must be world anarchy or world order.

Throughout all this ordeal and struggle which is characteristic of our age, you will find in the British Commonwealth and Empire good comrades to whom you are united by other ties besides those of State policy and public need. To a large extent, they are the ties of blood and history. Naturally I, a child of both worlds, am conscious of these.

Law, language, literature - these are considerable factors. Common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, especially to the weak and poor, a stern sentiment of impartial justice, and above all the love of personal freedom, or as Kipling put it:

"Leave to live by no man 5 leave underneath the law" - these are common conceptions on both-sides of the ocean among the English-speaking peoples. We hold to these conceptions as strongly as you do.

We do not war primarily with races as such. Tyranny is our foe, whatever trappings or disguise it wears, whatever language it speaks, be it external or internal, we must forever be on our guard, ever mobilised, ever vigilant, always ready to spring at its throat. In all this, we march together. Not only do we march and strive shoulder to shoulder at this moment under the fire of the enemy on the fields of war or in the air, but also in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man.

At the present time we have in continual vigorous action the British and United States Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee, which works immediately under the President and myself as representative of the British War Cabinet. This committee, with its elaborate organisation of Staff officers of every grade, disposes of all our resources and, in practice, uses British and American troops, ships, aircraft, and munitions just as if they were the resources of a single State or nation.

I would not say there are never divergences of view among these high professional authorities. It would be unnatural if there were not. That is why it is necessary to have a plenary meeting of principals every two or three months. All these men now know each other. They trust each other. They like each other, and most of them have been at work together for a long time. When they meet they thrash things out with great candour and plain, blunt speech, but after a few days the President and I find ourselves furnished with sincere and united advice.

This is a wonderful system. There was nothing like it in the last war. There never has been anything like it between two allies. It is reproduced in an even more tightly-knit form at General Eisenhower's headquarters in the Mediterranean, where everything is completely intermingled and soldiers are ordered into battle by the Supreme Commander or his deputy, General Alexander, without the slightest regard to whether they are British, American, or Canadian, but simply in accordance with the fighting need.

Now in my opinion it would be a most foolish and improvident act on the part of our two Governments, or either of them, to break up this smooth-running and immensely powerful machinery the moment the war is over. For our own safety, as well as for the security of the rest of the world, we are bound to keep it working and in running order after the war - probably for a good many years, not only until we have set up some world arrangement to keep the peace, but until we know that it is an arrangement which will really give us that protection we must have from danger and aggression, a protection we have already had to seek across two vast world wars.

I am not qualified, of course, to judge whether or not this would become a party question in the United States, and I would not presume to discuss that point. I am sure, however, that it will not be a party question in Great Britain. We must not let go of the securities we have found necessary to preserve our lives and liberties until we are quite sure we have something else to put in their place which will give us an equally solid guarantee.

The great Bismarck - for there were once great men in Germany - is said to have observed towards the close of his life that the most potent factor in human society at the end of the nineteenth century was the fact that the British and American peoples spoke the same language.

That was a pregnant saying. Certainly it has enabled us to wage war together with an intimacy and harmony never before achieved among allies.

This gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance, and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship. I like to think of British and Americans moving about freely over each other's wide estates with hardly a sense of being foreigners to one another. But I do not see why we should not try to spread our common language even more widely throughout the globe and, without seeking selfish advantage over any, possess ourselves of this invaluable amenity and birthright.

Some months ago I persuaded the British Cabinet to set up a committee of Ministers to study and report upon Basic English. Here you have a plan. There are others, but here you have a very carefully wrought plan for an international language capable of a very wide transaction of practical business and interchange of ideas. The whole of it is comprised in about 650 nouns and 200 verbs or other parts of speech - no more indeed than can be written on one side of a single sheet of paper.

What was my delight when, the other evening, quite unexpectedly, I heard the President of the United States suddenly speak of the merits of Basic English, and is it not a coincidence that, with all this in mind, I should arrive at Harvard, in fulfilment of the long-dated invitations to receive this degree, with which president Conant has honoured me? For Harvard has done more than any other American university to promote the extension of Basic English. The first work on Basic English was written by two Englishmen, Ivor Richards, now of Harvard, and C.K. Ogden, of Cambridge University, England, working in association.

The Harvard Commission on English Language Studies is distinguished both for its research and its practical work, particularly in introducing the use of Basic English in Latin America; and this Commission, your Commission, is now, I am told, working with secondary schools in Boston on the use of Basic English in teaching the main language to American children and in teaching it to foreigners preparing for citizenship.

Gentlemen, I make you my compliments. I do not wish to exaggerate, but you are the head-stream of what might well be a mighty fertilising and health-giving river. It would certainly be a grand convenience for us all to be able to move freely about the world - as we shall be able to do more freely than ever before as the science of the world develops - be able to move freely about the world, and be able to find everywhere a medium, albeit primitive, of intercourse and understanding. Might it not also be an advantage to many races, and an aid to the building-up of our new structure for preserving peace?

All these are great possibilities, and I say: "Let us go into this together. Let us have another Boston Tea Party about it."

Let us go forward as with other matters and other measures similar in aim and effect - let us go forward in malice to none and good will to all. Such plans offer far better prizes than taking away other people's provinces or lands or grinding them down in exploitation. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

It would, of course, Mr. President, be lamentable if those who are charged with the duty of leading great nations forward in this grievous and obstinate war were to allow their minds and energies to be diverted from making the plans to achieve our righteous purposes without needless prolongation of slaughter and destruction.

Nevertheless, we are also bound, so far as life and strength allow, and without prejudice to our dominating military tasks, to look ahead to those days which will surely come when we shall have finally beaten down Satan under our feet and find ourselves with other great allies at once the. masters and the servants of the future. Various schemes of achieving world security while yet preserving national rights, traditions and customs are being studied and probed.

We have all the fine work that was done a quarter of a century ago by those who devised and tried to make effective the League of Nations after the last war. It is said that the League of Nations failed. If so, that is largely because it was abandoned, and later on betrayed: because those who were its best friends were till a very late period infected with a futile pacifism: because the United States, the originating impulse, fell out of line: because, while France had been bled white and England was supine and bewildered, a monstrous growth of aggression sprang up in Germany, in Italy and Japan.

We have learned from hard experience that stronger, more efficient, more rigorous world institutions must be created to preserve peace and to forestall the causes of future wars. In this task the strongest victorious nations must be combined, and also those who have borne the burden and heat of the day and suffered under the flail of adversity; and, in this task, this creative task, there are some who say: "Let us have a world council and under it regional or continental councils," and there are others who prefer a somewhat different organisation.

All these matters weigh with us now in spite of the war, which none can say has reached its climax, which is perhaps entering for us, British and Americans, upon its most severe and costly phase. But I am here to tell you that, whatever form your system of world security may take, however the nations are grouped and ranged, whatever derogations are made from national sovereignty for the sake of the larger synthesis, nothing will work soundly or for long without the united effort of the British and American peoples.

If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.

I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our two peoples, not for any purpose of gaining invidious material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandisement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honour that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes.

Here let me say how proud we ought to be, young and old alike, to live in this tremendous, thrilling, formative epoch in the human story, and how fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave. Let all who are here remember, as the words of the hymn we have just sung suggest, let all of us who are here remember that we are on the stage of history, and that whatever our station may be, and whatever part we have to play, great or small, our conduct is liable to be scrutinised not only by history but by our own descendants.

Let us rise to the full level of our duty and of our opportunity, and let us thank God for the spiritual rewards He has granted for all forms of valiant and faithful service."

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

this is neat!



http://beetlebailey.com/images/flag.swf

I LOVE IT GHG!!!

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

This deserves and place on this topic. I am copying it from our main discussion.

http://members.aol.com/viperash50/

WELCOME HOME


A PATRIOT LIVES THROUGHOUT THE AGES
THEY WRITE HIS NAME IN HISTORY’S PAGES
HE’S NOT AFRAID TO DEFEND WHAT HE BELIEVES
EVEN WHEN THE BATTLE SEEMS TO RAGE ON ENDLESSLY

WHEN DUTY CALLED, YOU DID NOT QUESTION
YOU PROUDLY WENT TO SERVE YOUR NATION
YOU STOOD TALL PREPARED TO GIVE YOUR LIFE
WHILE SO MANY OF YOUR BROTHERS MADE THAT SACRIFICE

YOU’VE BEEN FORGOTTEN HEROES FOR TOO LONG
WITH OPEN ARMS AND GRATEFUL HEARTS
WE WELCOME YOU HOME

(chorus)

WELCOME HOME WEARY SOLDIER
WELCOME HOME
MAY YOU NEVER WALK ANOTHER MILE ALONE
YOUR LEGACY OF COURAGE
WILL FOREVER LIVE ON
WELCOME HOME WEARY SOLDIER
WELCOME HOME

THERE STANDS A WALL TO HONOR
EVERY FALLEN SON
THEIR NAMES ARE FOREVER CARVED IN STONE
BUT LET US NOT FORSAKE THE SOLDIER
WHOSE SERVICE NOW IS DONE
THE BRAVEST SOULS OUR COUNTRY’S EVER KNOWN

WELCOME HOME WEARY SOLDIER
WELCOME HOME
MAY YOU NEVER WALK ANOTHER MILE ALONE
YOUR LEGACY OF COURAGE
WILL FOREVER LIVE ON
WELCOME HOME WEARY SOLDIER
WELCOME HOME


ERIC HORNER July 3, 2002
© 2002 BLUE CHAMELEON MUSIC GROUP

I can be sweet... Or Not...

[This message was edited by cherryread on Tue, 16 March 2004 at 12:08.]

Thank you for copying that over lindagr41!!! That is an excellent site.

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." Eleanor Roosevelt

The Silent Walk


The time has come for us to leave
To march through jungles, very deep
Sounds, not a one do we make
Our very lives are at stake

We walk for what seems many miles
Over the passes in the jungle wilds
You do not hear our passing through
The man in charge, he points to you

The path you take, you must choose
Silence, not a sound, or you will lose
You watch the front and all around
Hoping to god to not make a sound

You know the enemy is all around
Waiting and hiding under ground
For you to make that one mistake
And jump you as fast as a snake

Your nerves they are on end
Not real sure whats around the bend
Ever so softly you now stalk
Hoping to make it thru this silent walk.

Raymond Lee
March 2003

Ray, One die hard true blue American Military supporter. Member of Troll Hunter Squadron.....Aerial Gunner