True Meanings

4 December 2009

I wonder how many people can read the words below and tell where they are from:

Day is done ...
Gone the sun ...
From the lakes ...
From the hills ...
From the sky ...
All is well ...
Safely rest ...
God is nigh...

Fading light ...
Dims the sight ...
And a star ...
Gems the sky...
Gleaming bright ...
From afar...
Drawing nigh ...
Falls the night...

Thanks and praise ...
For our days ...
Neath the sun ...
Neath the stars ...
Neath the sky ...
As we go ...
This we know ...
God is nigh ...

And I wish I was a rich man and be able to by a dinner for every person that actually was able to tell what these words are. Myself I just found out just few years ago that the song in question actually had lyrics, as I thought it was only a musical hymn.

Well the words you just read are the lyrics of one of the most venerated musical piece for every Military Veteran of the United States. They are the words of Taps.

I was inspired to these thoughts by an e-mail I received from a man whose friendship I value as one of the greatest fortunes of my life. This is a man who not only talks the talk but also walks the walk, and who has accepted this nasty civilian as a friend and a brother. Doyle ‘Popeye’ Tolbert.

Doyle forwarded to me this message he had just e-mailed to a local radio station:

Sent to Radio Station KRTH in Los Angeles today.
This morning, 12/3/09, I was riding to Riverside to take part in the arrival of a "Fallen Warrior" who was being brought home to his family after paying the ultimate price for this Country. I do not normally listen to your show but was listening today. You had a contestant on the line who failed to answer the question correctly and during the conversation between you, the contestant and others on your show, a few notes of "Taps" was played in the background.I found this very offensive that you would use this tune in such an off hand manner. Possibly you do not understand what those few notes mean to us Vets and active duty troops. It is to be played only at the end of a service honoring a Fallen Warrior, or a vet who has served this Country honorably in the past. This Country has forgotten or is in the process of forgetting again, what the military means. Memorial Day and Veterans Day are not just long weekends that signal the beginning and the end of summer and not excuses for another "Big Sale" at all of the department stores. So please if you could, find some other means of relating to your listeners that a wrong answer has been given. I thank you as will all other Vets.

Really, not much for me to add to the eloquent point made by Mr. Tolbert regarding the issue of Taps being desecrated by frivolous use, better yet, abuse, from couple of entertainment idiots.
But one word used by Doyle really triggered my thoughts and emotions, the word “again” in the last paragraph of the message.

See, Doyle is a Vietnam Veteran, and when he uses the word “again” in respect to America forgetting the Military, it enrages me. He, and so many other heroes of that conflict, paid extreme prices for their service to a country that turned its back on them. And when a Vietnam Veteran uses the word “again” in the context of his or her feeling about how America is detached from its Military today, I can literally feel my blood pressure skyrocket and my commitment to the support and defense of the United States Armed Forces is doubled.

There are very few people in my past from whom I can really say that I learnt life lessons from, and the Vietnam Veterans I have the privilege to know today are most of those people, because even after being so disgustingly mistreated by the society they sacrificed, bled and died to protect, they remain the most dedicated patriots this country could ever hope to have, especially in their commitment to never let the bad apples of today’s American society perpetrate that same shameful injustice on today’s New Greatest Generation of Warriors. And Mr. Tolbert, like so many like him, continues their service to our country to this day.

My hat is off to you, Doyle. It is a true privilege and honor to know you.

And these are my thoughts!
Frank “Semperpapa”