Veterans

I planned a Veterans Day post for the real Veterans Day, yesterday. I was inspired by CBS Sunday Morning. I think I stopped myself because I think one should always stop oneself when they're being inspired by a fluffy weekly news program. But Ben Stein made such good points and they were interviewing the parents of ROTC students but there was also a recruiter and then there were the pictures of Arlington Cemetary and...well, apparently there's a safety valve in my brain that keeps me from writing when inspired by that stuff.

Well, sometimes at least.

Still, I wanted to mark the day. Tonight while I was cleaning I put on some music. I need music you can sing along to when I clean so there are often show tunes. Lots and lots of show tunes. Shuffle brought up a selection from Les Miserables. It seems as good a way as any to mark the day, because it's got some truth to it.

Keep your eyes peeled for Veterans and show some gratitude. It's never a bad thing.

MARIUS
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.

Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about `tomorrow'
And tomorrow never came.

From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On the lonely barricade at dawn.

Oh my friends, my friends forgive me

That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.

Phantom faces at the window.
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will meet no more.

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where my friends will sing no more.