Please
take the time to read this, and listen to the beautiful song for
our WWII vets.
The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood! Neither was Sam
Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, FL eye doctor,
business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after
appearing at an event. He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began
to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm
doing," he said bitterly.
At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he
rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my
heart, I want to thank you." Then the old soldier began to cry. "That
really got to me," Bierstock says.
Cut to today. Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach and a
member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band, have
written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot.
The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought
in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors
before they die.
"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been
shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are
now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank
them."
The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the
Web <http://www.beforeyougo.us>
, the song and accompanying photo
essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks
from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.
"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail
saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he
discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed
in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never
thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about
them."
Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional
singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so
many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the
Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington.
Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day
tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in
America gets a chance to hear it.
God Bless EVERY veteran and THANK YOU to those of you veterans who may
receive this! Click the link below to hear the song and see the pictures and
then pass it on!
<http://www.beforeyougo.us>