Veterans.

http://www.managedmusic.com/beforeyougo.html
 

Before You Go

 

October 22, 2005

 

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood.

 

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around1 a.m., and Bierstock, aDelray
Beach,Fla., 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 - 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. "Every ethnic minority
would be dead. And the 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, 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 asAnzio,Iwo Jima,BataanandOmahaBeach. "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 inWashington. Already they have been invited to perform it
inHoustonfor a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the
Web. They hope every veteran inAmericagets a chance to hear it.