A song for Memorial Day
I’ve posted this song before, but I think it bears repeating, especially on Memorial Day weekend.
It’s Tim McGraw’s extraordinarily moving song “If You’re Reading This:”
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I absolutely love this song. So much meaning expressed so simply.
Carbon Leaf: The War Was in Color
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf29IIQuqYk
Well, for one, I wish he’d put some clothes on because I ain’t no faggot. If you are a vet, you realize this video is about Tim McGraw, not vets. Two, does he know the irony of a tattoo which is a fish? Obviously not. Third, what’s with the gesture of the bull? Fourth, this song is as much an anti-war song as it is patriotic.
It’s really quite pathetic.
McGraw, a Democrat, has stated that he would like to run for public office in the future, possibly for Senate or Governor of Tennessee, his home state.[60][61] In the same interview, he praised former President Bill Clinton.[61] He has referred to himself as a “Blue Dog Democrat” and stated that he supported presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008.
He’s a fraud and a front.
Here’s a better attempt, a song which honors the wellspring of all veteran’s ground of courage and fortitude: our Creator who has endowed us all with noble propensity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLLMzr3PFgk
SOS
Song of the Soldier.
I need medicine
not attributes.
I need an operation
not my commanding officer.
Every memorial day
I have to dress up
for an event
which is a free meal.
I’d rather the day
passed without notice
and the hype and speeches
passed into treatment.
That’s my day.
waitforit:
You may not like McGraw or the song, but the lyrics are not antiwar. The lyrics can be found at the link in the post. But I refer you to the following as an example (he’s speaking of a daughter in the first couple of lines) [emphasis mine]:
“I hope she looks like you
I hope she fights like me
And stands up for the innocent and the weak
I’m layin’ down my gun,
I’m hanging up my boots
Tell dad I don’t regret that I followed in his shoes
The implication in the last line in the stanza is that his father was also a veteran, and that both are proud of their service.
The “layin’ down my gun, hanging up my boots” part refers to the protagonist’s death, not resignation from the service or rejection of it. When the singer mentions “peace,” it’s only in the context of the afterlife.
McGraw may indeed be a Democrat, but the song is heart-rending, patriotic, and pro-military. The fact is that people in the military sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice. That’s in the song, too, and that’s what Memorial Day is about.
In my opinion you are letting your hatred of McGraw’s politics cloud your perception of the song.
Yeah, that was pretty dark, wasn’t it. I agree, it takes some doing to skew the song like I did. About the other things, they probably don’t bother many people. They did me, and I just didn’t find the song all that great. Maybe it was this recording which is kind of tinny. I just found something commercial and unreal about it. My first reaction was like watching Obama lay a wreath on the vet’s monument. Just don’t, okay. Not from you. Do something nobody sees and don’t use the occasion for your own promotion.
But I suppose that would preclude what a CIC should do and prevent Hollywood/Nashville from supporting troops and creating the positive public image. Who am I too say somebody shouldn’t sing a song or lay a wreath. It’s the right thing to do, right.
I just kind of like had an epiphany embodied in this question. When it becomes more important to transform us than protect us, shall we obey the transformer?
That epiphany “epiphanized” as I sat thinking, Rodin like, on my military history. Never did transformation enter (intrude) upon the mission/training. No one suggested that perhaps the platoon sergeant should be gay in order to reflect population ratios.
Blacks earned their way into the ranks with their blood and service and not by political correctness. Women and gays? Not so much. They demand to ride on the epiphany, the epiphany of 70 years ago when blacks, by their performance and merit, proved they’re loyalty.
And why shouldn’t they have been required to prove it? Certainly they could have a grudge. But they didn’t. Not so much as measured against their fierce fight to prove they would support the Constitution of the United States.
Not so with queers and women in the military. The burden of proof, as with the blacks, is on them. But they want affirmative action, special rules, special tribunals, positive media reports, speech protection, what else, am I missing? Anything?
Instead of fighting to prove their worth, they want Obama, Reid, and Pelosi and the academic/Hollywood cartel to do it for them based on ideological (modern religion) grounds rather than empirical evidence.
I put it to you Greg, is this not an indictment of our entire American society?
Enjoy the irony! The Hippies have become the Man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROxvT8KKdFw
Here is an author that changed his views. Something you may be interested in, Neo, especially as Wright is fighting against Scalzi and the LEftist writers.
http://www.everyjoe.com/2014/05/07/politics/why-im-no-longer-libertarian/
John C. Wright is no light weight.
At the age of 42, Wright converted from atheism to Christianity citing a profound religious experience with visions of the “Virgin Mary, her son, and His Father-not to mention various other spirits and ghosts over a period of several days” and claiming that prayers he made were answered. In 2008, he converted to the Roman Catholic Church, of which he approvingly stated: “If Vulcans had a church, they’d be Catholics.”
Secularism, atheism, darwinism . . . were always without proof and are being deconstructed with the result that they are shallow and selfish.
Neo, I think we need a clean up over here on aisle 9.
and outside the store!
I just wish I could miss you, John.
But I don’t. No miss on the Obama lies. No miss on Benghazi. No miss on the IRS.
How are you. Want to clean up?
Damn it. You would have been great. DeChico!
Memorial Day Tribute Videos
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2014/05/memorial-day-tribute-videos.html
A better, IMO C&W tribute to those who put their lives on the line: http://tinyurl.com/m32rovl
Perhaps referencing C&W is unnecessary… not a lot of love of individual liberty free of DC regulations to be found in pop, rock, rap, hip hop. Freedom is not free, there is always a terrible cost.
For humans, that which we pay little for, we value little as well. One of the most common human flaws.