MEMORIAL DAY 2008

This is one of the greatest renditions of Amazing Grace I've ever heard. I thought it would be a good way to top off my Memorial Day Remembrance. Please keep all the military members in your prayers and remember their families. They fight and sacrifice for our freedom. Some make the ultimate sacrifice and that is too painful to bear. The rest mourn their fallen brothers and sisters and feel their pain everyday. We have them to thank for the freedom and privilege of living in America and having the grace from God of being called Americans. I thank God everyday for my birthright and that is why I am so protective of it.

As you exercise your rights please remember their sacrifice.

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE. ALL GAVE SOME. SOME GAVE ALL.

THE COST OF WAR

I wanted to do something for Memorial Day. This video is without a doubt as good as it gets for today. I would like to be able to say something profound, but I will let this video speak for itself. Remember that freedom isn't free. That sounds trite until you see this video. Watch and cry. I did.

20, OOPS, 30 PLUS YEARS AGO

I ran across this while looking for songs. Whoever made this caught the dichotomy of the 60s. There were the anti-war types and the military types. I never felt any animosity towards those who were anti-war. Going to Canada and waving a North Vietamese flag, well, I can't let that go. This was America at the time. Very nicely done and it will stand for Memorial Day weekend.

I'll post something else, but this will do for now. I need to wipe my eyes and catch my breath now.

I FOUGHT THE LAW

This is a song I loved as a kid. I use it today to tell the kids that even if you don't want to do something, you might as well do it, because "I fought the law and the law won."

GROUP NAME: BOBBY FULLER FOUR

CYRKLE II

More Cyrkle.

CYRKLE

This was a neat song. I was about 13 when it came out. It represented a different sound. Kind of bouncy and upbeat. They had another song. I'll post it too.

THE MASK SLIPS

"Socialize" the oil industry? Obviously she was looking for "nationalize." The problem is that she probably had the audacity to verbalize in public the agenda of the Dems. While I was the recipient of "resocialization" in basic training, we will all be the victims of nationalization. The USSR nationalized all industry after the the Russian Revolution with devastating results. I think if a veto proof majority is elected in the congress along with Obama as president, we are in for an unprecedented round of socialism.

For those of you who are struggling with voting for McCain, the alternative is without a doubt, catyclismic for America. Taxes will go out of sight for most of us because if you want all of the things Obama wants someone has to pay for it. And it won't just be the hated rich, but it will be the middle class and that includes you who earn about $50,000 or more. These things that Obama wants to impose on America and pay for are incredibly expensive. My question is who will pay for this?

Class warfare only goes so far. Where do you draw the line when it comes to paying for these government programs. The government only has one source of income and that is taxes. Taxes come from Americans. Dems cannot reach into some magical grab bag and find money. It comes from us, the taxpayers. I hate that gas is expensive as it is.

I come from the generation that saw gas as a resource that was always there. We paid 30 cents or so per gallon when I was a kid. We went on Sunday drives, we cruised as teenagers listening to our music, and I remember my mother saying we drove to the Air Force base to watch planes take off for entertainment. I remember eating a big bag of popcorn while I watched the power of America as it took off from the base. I was enthralled by the planes and I felt pride in my country. I was raised in the Cold War period and it was comforting to see the air power of the US.

My dad insisted that his children watch JFK make his speech about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was mesmerized by the evidence that he showed of the Soviet presence near my home. The Soviets were bad people and we needed to work to defeat them. I was taught that we were Americans and that we were chosen to change the world. I was also taught that each American owed everything to our country. We are blessed to be Americans and we should be willing to give everything back to her.

Just some thoughts when I heard Maxine Waters and her bald-faced message to America.

COME ON DOWN TO MY BOAT BABY

This was too good to pass up. The video itself is worth a look. I remember this song was scandalous and wasn't played by some radio stations. How tame it is now. We loved the song, probably because it was controversial and made us feel wild to listen to it.

Name of the group:

EVERY MOTHER'S SON

MORE TODAY THAN YESTERDAY

Here's a great song. Check out the hair and suits on these guys. This was another song that we loved and sang to at the top of our lungs while riding around in a car cruising. Gas was cheap then, about 30 cents a gallon. Ah, the good old days.

Name of the group?

SPIRAL STARECASE

I'M YOUR VEHICLE, BABY

This a cool song by another one-hit wonder. Their sound is obviously very similar to Chicago. In fact, my friends and I thought this was Chicago when it first came out. Good song. Name of the group?

IDES OF MARCH

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN

This was my high school graduation song. It really captured the times in its wisdom about listening to children and parents. I am a critic of the 60s but some of the music was on the money. Crosby, Stills,& Nash were great musicians, although sometimes they wandered out onto the left. They went to another musical level when Neil Young joined them. I think they were doing what a lot of people were trying to do at that time, find their way. The 60s were tremendously disorienting to the country. We haven't recovered yet. Some of the music was visionary and left its mark on music today. And sometimes it celebrated rioting.

KIND OF A DRAG

Here's another song I loved as a kid. I think they made more songs, but this was by far their biggest hit. Good stuff.

GROUP'S NAME: THE BUCKINGHAMS

ONE-HIT WONDERS

I was thinking about the music of our generation when it dawned on me that we had a lot of one-hit wonders. They were really good songs but that was the only hit those groups made. They had a tendency to break up and form other groups. I love this song, although the pictures are a stretch. Listen to the music. It is great.

Give a listen to my friend at Texas Truth (blogroll), and his Chicago song. They too, are a great group with a lot Chicago's jazz influence. Fantastic!

I'll post other one-hit wonders.

GROUP'S NAME: LOOKING GLASS

ENTERTAIN US, PLEASE!

You know what is evident about the Beatles is their grasp of the obvious. I remember listening to an interview with them in which John said that Americans have this strange propensity to ask celebrities their opinion on national/world issues and then to put stock in them. He seemed to be amused. In this video they are entertainers entertaining and they are very good at it. When did it become important to hear from people who can sing, dance, or act about important issues and hang on every word? I would think there are a lot of individuals who are much more informed than entertainers about the issues of the world. America truly has a cult of celebrity. What a shame. It cheapens us as a country.

REVOLUTION-BEATLES STYLE

This post is dedicated to Obama and his "revolutionary" buddies William Ayers and Bernadine Dorn. The Beatles are telling these revolutionaries that violent change is unacceptable to them. John Lennon was a genuine peacenik. He was definitely against war of any kind, but he felt change could and should be made without violence. The SDS types are not changers, they were quite simply terrorists. Nothing more and nothing less. It says something when The Beatles got it while it seems to escape Obama that these terrorists are bad people who did bad things that they don't regret. It doesn't matter how long ago it was. Get it?


You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right

Here is another Beatles song. As you can tell I love them. In 1980, John Lennon was murdered. What the hell? Politics aside, he didn't deserve that. I lost a little of my innocence that day. I was a cop, but I still believed that some things were wrong. This was wrong. I still have trouble dealing with these kinds of things. Part of me wants to believe that right will prevail. I hope it does.

AP US HISTORY TEST

My students took the US History test yesterday. The Document Based Question was about the Vietnam War. DBQs are questions that require the students to read documents and incorporate them into an essay using the documents to bolster their thesis. I was interested in the documents that the student were given. While I expected the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and something about Nixon, I was kind of unprepared for the lyrics of a song from Woodstock by Country Joe and the Fish. While the song was clever, it was not something I would have made available to high school students as it made liberal use of the "F" word. I looked at the packet of information and strangely enough it bypassed the obscentities. Without the "F" word it seemed to be a rather tame song.

The version I provided is the uncut version. I was very disturbed that the AP testers used this obscene song in the test. I am going to protest this. The fact that they edited it is lame. If the song had academic validity play it in its entirety. Instead, the testers felt it necessary to play only a portion of the song so that their agenda was met. Having been a part of this generation I get the implication of this song.

The slant of the question and of the documents provided is crap. Of the nine documents provided, two were not out and out anti-war. From talking to the students it was not hard to determine the effect on the students of these documents. They were adamantly against our effort there. That's good you say. I wish it was that easy. Our aims there were honorable. The media, and their friends in the universities beat the war effort down into a dishonorable undertaking that was limited to the propensity of the US to be an imperialist country. In other words, the Truman Doctrine and the Containment Policy were worthless undertakings that just expanded US influence and chewed up GIs.

I beg to differ. What chewed up GIs was the lack of willpower by the US government to win the war. We won every battle. When it got down to it, the US lost its will, backed out and made us run. We signed a truce in 1973, after we lost 58,000 soldiers. In 1975, the North attacked the South and we abandoned them. THIS WAS NOT A LOST WAR, IT WAS A FORFEITED WAR.

MAY 4, 1970

I had to post this. Nothing else needs to be said.

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.

Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'.
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drummin'.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.

MUSIC I REMEMBER

I have been inspired by my friend at American Power (see blogrooll). He has posted music from his youth on his site. While I admire the music he has posted, I can't relate to it. It does not speak to me. Therefore, I will post music from my youth that does speak to me.

My first post will be "The Long and Winding Road." It is hands down my favorite Beatles song for a number of reasons. First, it is just a beautiful song. Secondly, my memories are of high school dances. We always lined up on the walls, male and female. We spent our time looking across the gym at the girls and challenged each other to go across the floor to ask a girl to dance. I spent some time ashamed to walk across that floor because I didn't have the courage. We didn't want to be shot down in front of our friends.

One night I was the target of the jibes of my friends. I didn't like it at all, but I took it because it was less painful than being shot down by a girl. Finally, I gathered my courage and walked across the floor and asked the girl I admired from afar to dance. She looked beautiful and all I wanted was for her to dance with me. She said yes, and we danced to "The Long and Winding Road." I felt like a hero. She was extremely gracious because I sucked at dancing. Mostly, I went across the floor because I wanted to prove to my friends that I had balls.

The perfect ending to the story would be that I married that girl. Too bad. I never saw her after high school, although she gave me her picture to keep when I went into the military. I showed it around like it was a trophy. The Beatles were a group that gave a voice to a generation. We loved them. All the other bands of the 60s copied them. While they expounded on their sound, they were never the same. At least not to me.

Here are the lyrics.

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
Ive seen that road before
It always leads me her
Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way

Many times Ive been alone
And many times Ive cried
Any way youll never know
The many ways Ive tried

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Dont leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Dont leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah