By Mark A. Wright, HMC(SS)
22 June, 2000
I first saw him on a park bench
I've seen him every day
Sitting in a shady grove
Where my children come to play
Sometimes he feeds the birds and squirrels
Or whittles little toys
Sometimes he just sits and smiles
At the laughing girls and boys
And I never paid him any mind
'Till one day just this year
I noticed that he wore a frown
And on his cheek ... a tear.
Well I asked him why he seemed so down
He looked up, began to say
I lost half my friends 60 years ago today
He told me of the terror
As he fought to reach dry land
By the time the beachhead was secure
Half his friends lay in the sand
That was just in one long day
He fought on for 4 years more
And the 60 years from then to now
Have not dimmed His sights of war
He said they have reunions
Just to keep in touch and share
And for each comrade who has gone on
They leave an empty chair
Well, His park bench has been empty now
About 6 months or so
And if I'd never took the time
Then I never would've known
That sitting on that simple bench
With bread crumbs and little toys
Was a man who gave his all
To guarantee my daily joys
So give thanks to all the men and women
Who're still here or have gone before
And made the highest sacrifice
In both Peace time and in War
Because they bought our freedom
Paid their own blood, sweat, and tears
Then endured the heartache of those empty chairs
For all these years
So please do not ignore them
Or speed by without a care
'Cause you never know
When you might pass by
A hero, unaware
****
To all of our brave men and women in the Armed Forces. Past and present. Without your sacrifice we could not stand. We will never forget - Memorial Day or not - your service and sacrific that ensure our freedoms.
Honestly, there are MANY beautiful and wonderful poems out there. It was very hard to choose which ones to post. However, I received a poem through e-mail about 6 months ago. This particular peom was sent in a letter from a Marine to his father dated March 23, 2003 and although this is something that some may have read many times before, I HAVE to post this (for obvious reasons):
The Marine - by Corporal Aaron M. Gilbert, US Marine Corps
We all came together,
Both young and old
To fight for our freedom,
To stand and be bold.
In the midst of all evil,
We stand our ground,
And we protect our country
From all terror around.
Peace and not war,
Is what some people say.
But I'll give my life,
So you can live the American way.
I give you the right
To talk of your peace.
To stand in your groups,
and protest in our streets.
But still I fight on,
I don't bitch, I don't whine.
I'm just one of the people
Who is doing your time.
I'm harder than nails,
Stronger than any machine.
I'm the immortal soldier,
I'm a U.S. MARINE!
So stand in my shoes,
And leave from your home.
Fight for the people who hate you,
With the protests they've shown.
Fight for the stranger,
Fight for the young.
So they all may have,
The greatest freedom you've won.
Fight for the sick,
Fight for the poor
Fight for the cripple,
Who lives next door.
But when your time comes,
Do what I've done.
For if you stand up for freedom,
You'll stand when the fight's done.
This is not the first time that Linux has been under attack for alleged patent infringements.
"We've heard all this before with the SCO (Unix) case," says Steven D'Aprano, operations manager for Windows-Linux integration consultant Cybersource. "We know that Microsoft had been funding SCO, tossing them a few million here and there to keep the case alive.
"SCO did their best to show that there was supposed patent and copyright violations in the Linux kernel. While the case hasn't completely finished yet, it has lost steam because SCO has got no evidence to support their claims.
"Until Microsoft start to actually point at particular bits that they claim are in patent violation then talk is cheap."
According to D'Aprano, an open source advocate, if Microsoft actually does put on the gloves against Linux, it will have a tough time deciding who to go after.
My hubby has been too busy with work to post this, so I shall do it for him. For all who are living in the U.S, I'm REALLY not trying to turn this into a political debate. We all have our views on why prices are the way they are and we feel very pasionately about those views. However, it's really not the point. The point is that we're SICK of this and it's time we take a stand! So without further delay:
In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.
On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas
station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in
most places. There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to
fill up. If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil
companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil
industry for at least one day.
If you agree resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th".
Diane Disney Miller said she was disgusted that a copy of the famous cartoon character was being used on a new Hamas TV show to encourage Palestinian children to fight against Israel and America.
Ms Miller, 73, claimed it went "against the grain of humanity", before saying: "Of course I feel personal about Mickey Mouse, but it could be Barney as well.
"It's not just Mickey, it's indoctrinating children like this, teaching them to be evil. The world loves children and this is just going against the grain of humanity."
Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV station began to show the children's series, Tomorrow's Pioneers, last month. It features a life-size lookalike of Mickey Mouse called Farfur, who sings about children arming themselves with AK-47s and aspiring for world domination "under Islamic leadership".
Ms Miller said: "What we're dealing with here is pure evil and you can't ignore that."
After CNN's Glenn Beck blew the whistle on this new tactic by Islamic Extremists to indoctrinate children to kill Americans and Israelis, the media are finally covering it.
Now they are claiming to be taking it off the air, why do I not believe it will change very much?
CNN article here
It is the party’s third consecutive presidential defeat. The Socialists now face the question of whether they can ever regain power without ditching their anti-capitalist rhetoric, as the mainstream left has done across almost all of Europe.
Ms Royal can argue that she did better than Lionel Jospin, who in 2002 led the Socialists to a humiliating third place behind Jacques Chirac and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. But France’s main opposition party still faces a wrenching crisis.
”The left is not credible on so many issues, from the 35-hour working week to immigration and law and order,” says Dominique Reynié, professor at Sciences Po university.
From the little I know of this campaign and the content in this article I'd say I have hope for the people of France yet. Here's hoping that Sarkozy can bring the country together and make positive long term change.
So I have some electronic waste lying around the house I want to recycle. Most of it no longer works and I like sustainability as much as anyone else.
I am amazed at the number of places that charge fees to recycle! Why would people want to recycle for a fee, when they can just junk it for free?! We will never be more green as long as it is cheaper to not be green.
It seems the two crooks never learned two things, they were in Montana and Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since she was nine. Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father's room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.
Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buck shot from the 11 year olds knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals. When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.
It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. The victim, 50 year old David Burien, was not so lucky as he died from stab wounds to the chest.
Three words,
You Go Girl!
:-)
*edit*
I have been trying to confirm this but I'm not able to so for now it's a news story with the emphasis on story until I can confirm it.
Exposed: The Climate of Fear
Wednesday May 2nd
7 & 9 PM
CNN Headline News
Who's responsible for global warming and what can be done to fix it? Why would someone be harassed just for raising questions? Glenn Beck takes on the media hype surrounding the global warming debate and asks whether some proposed solutions would do more harm than good.
Don't miss "Exposed: A Climate of Fear," a one-hour Glenn Beck special report, Wednesday at 7 and 9 p.m. ET.