Yesterday during a conversation with a customer, he said "I'm deploying to Afghanistan next week and I'm not sure if I'll return. I never know each time they send me." I thanked him for his service before I hung up the phone, aware of his bravery in the face of the unknown. Sometimes you feel helpless when all you can do is offer up prayers for a safe return. Thinking of all the men and women over the centuries who have fought and died in service to our country this memorial day.
Memorial Day
© 2001 Ali M., 3rd Grader, Academy Elementary School, Madison, Connecticut.
"As the flowers rest on the decorated graves and the sunlight shines on the beautiful sailboats, Uncle Sam whispers in my ear about how we should care for the soldiers and remember the ones that have died. Swimming pools open, BBQs fry. Today is the day to think of what they have done for us. There are blurs of red, white and blue marching down the street and flags are lowered at half-mast. But we should always remember and never forget what set us free, from this very day on."
"As the flowers rest on the decorated graves and the sunlight shines on the beautiful sailboats, Uncle Sam whispers in my ear about how we should care for the soldiers and remember the ones that have died. Swimming pools open, BBQs fry. Today is the day to think of what they have done for us. There are blurs of red, white and blue marching down the street and flags are lowered at half-mast. But we should always remember and never forget what set us free, from this very day on."
Freedom Is Not Free
by
Kelly Strong
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.
I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
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Finally finished “Blood and Fire”, a 670 page annal of the Targaryen rulers of Westeros. Actually it covers just the first 140 years of Targaryen rule. Another volume is presumably planned. Though we are all hoping the author is working on “Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring” instead.
ReplyDeleteThis book details the history of Targaryen rule which preceded the era of A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s the back story for Game of Thrones, but it doesn’t seem as embedded in the later epic as the Silmarilon was in Lord of the Rings.
It’s entertaining enough though, if you are a committed fan of the GRRM epic. 8.5 out of 10.