United States Marine Corps perform free

What’s Free
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." wrote Thomas Jefferson

The Battle Color Detachment of the United States Marine Corps are to perform at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on February 28th 2009. The performance is free and open to the public. I was asked in disbelief by Maddy Horn, a Scouting Mum, when I suggested we take the Scout to see this event, "Is anything still free?"

Can you believe that something’s still free?
Not Freedom and certainly not Liberty.
For they need recharging with blood from the vein
Of tyrants and patriots again and again.

The soldiers and airmen who keep us secure,
The life guards and sailors watching our shore,
The policemen and firemen who watch our front door
Their work is not free, that's for sure, that's for sure!

But the air that we breath and the sun in he sky,
And the pain in our hearts when a friend says goodbye
And the droplets of rain and the wind passing by,
Only they still are free, say I, say I!

FORREST

Helen Anderson MacDonald passed away June 5, 2008, at the age of 92, after complications of hip surgery. Helen is survived by her husband, Forrest, and daughters Karen M. Rosenthal and Lauren M. Cassatt and their families.








I sit and think about your news and don’t know what to say,
That won’t seem trite or empty were it said another way.
I think about the times we shared a laugh and then a drink,
But then the words you’ve written make my heart begin to sink.

I want to say a lot of things to show you that I care
To say how sorry I am now that I could not be there,
When friends and loved ones gathered round to help you share the grief
Instead of being limited to comments stiff and brief.

But Forrest I can never know the pain you feel inside,
When you reflect upon the loss of Helen, your fair bride.
I saw you two as constants by whom marriage should be scanned,
And shudder when I contemplate that life won’t go as planned.

I forward look and fear to see how fate might rule my life
And rob me at a crucial hour of Nancy, my dear wife.
Yet even now though time is brief when we have had our stay
I can but only thank God for the blessing of each day.

I have no comfort in my words to offer that are sage,
I only know that backward glances show upon the page,
That you were always good to me and brightened up my day
The same is true of Helen who now has flown away.