1:
I Remember Bethany by
The Piano Man
That was a time when everything was turned upside down. We are living in the aftershocks of that turmoil. We talk about three thousand dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, but don't remember fifty thousand names on the Wall in Washington. We talk about Gay rights, having forgotten the issues of Civil rights.
It was a different time.
2:
Daze in the Valley by
Jay Cantrell
Jay started with an idea. Then he kept to that idea from the beginning all the way to the end.
And some stories are hard to tell. They grab you and you hear a lot of voices talking at the same time.
160 + chapters is a LOT of work. Editors, writers, and people to keep you honest.
Jay, congratulations.
3:
Unending Night by
Jay Cantrell
jay does a lot of interesting things. This is one of the better ones. He really captures idiotic situations and heroic people.
I try to do that too.
5:
A Toast in an Empty Bar by
Jay Cantrell
Long ago I wrote a Poem called "Absent Friends". It was for the 5th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC.
I had at first hated that design and monument. It was stark, and horrific, and I felt it was not justice to the men and women I knew and served with. Many of whom are names on that wall.
Later, looking at it from the statue of the 3 veterans who look toward it, I mellowed. And realized that all of those people I knew would not be gone as long as we remembered them. Even as names on the wall.
So, I guess, it is fitting after all.
I wonder where we will memorialize those from these last 12 years of conflict?