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I was sent the following email this morning by Robert Thompson. I have listened to it myself and it IS a beautiful tribute. Get out the hankies...
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Veterans of WWII are now dying at a rate of about 2,000 per day. I encountered the following article in the Union-Tribune this morning, and checked out the referenced song (link in the article). It is a legitimate link, virus free, and an OUTSTANDING song in memory of our WWII veterans.
PLEASE, as a favor to me, take the time to read the article below and listen to the song at the following link. It may be the most valuable reading and listening you do in a long time.
NOTE: If the link in the article doesn't work, just go to www.beforeyougo.us. It will get you there.
Article************************
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 www.beforeyougo.us, 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.
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