As we head into the long Memorial Day weekend, the “unofficial” start of summer, I’m thinking about those people who won’t be firing up the barbeque and getting together with family and friends.  The wicked weather that has battered so much of the country this week has left thousands of people with nothing but the shirts on their backs.  In Joplin, Missouri, alone - well over a hundred people were killed when a monster Tornado decimated their town in a matter of minutes.  As of this writing there are 232 men, women and children still missing and the death toll is expected to rise. Meanwhile, the Mississippi River has flooded out thousands of homes and miles of farmland from Illinois to Louisiana. It seems we’ve been under attack - but this week, the “enemy” has been Mother Nature.   

But no matter where the attack originates, we are AMERICANS and that means that no matter what or who we face, our Homeland Security Alert System is permanently set on RED, WHITE & BLUE.

If you would like to help those in need go to www.redcross.org or www.salvationarmyusa.org.  

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Over my last few years on the air approaching Memorial Day Weekend, I recited the following poem in honor and in memory of the brave men and women of the Military who have laid down their lives that we may live ours.

Annabelle Gunnett JonesThat poem, “The Inscription”, was sent to me by a listener, Paul Reside. Paul’s Grandmother, Annabelle Gunnett Jones, penned it around 1932. The poem was picked up and published in the the Perry County, Ohio newspaper for a number of years on “Decoration Day”, or as we know it today - “Memorial Day”.

Annabelle was inspired to write the poem by her husband, a World War I Veteran, as a tribute to the Unknown Soldier. 

I hope you will share “The Inscription” with your family and friends.  In these turbulent times, it is imperative that we never forget the sacrifice our men and women in uniform have made, and continue to make today, so that we may live in freedom.  

Just click on the underlined link below to hear me reading the words written so long ago… that still resonate today.   

“The Inscription” by Annabelle Gunnett Jones 

 

Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend… and God Bless America!

-Dick 

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