Contributions by veterans, and other works of inspiration

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By Veterans:
Other sources of strength and courage:

FOR THE OTHERS:

Your body may betray you with the weakness found through pain,
the sleepless terror of long night will take its toll again,
The white clad shapes then softly come as quiet mortal fears
To pry away another piece and turn the hours to years.

When the beast who's God in here says
three is two and two is three
you can do nothing but agree
for surely that is what you see...

The knowledge and the tools that heal in kinder hands than these
Are now so carefully applied to poke and probe and tease;
The doctors who would secrets know, and failing that here use
The methods means and madness of impersonal abuse.

Beast God tell me what do you want
have I will, strength to escape
from this endless psychic rape
and my agony recorded on video tape...

Investigate and analyse, intending to control
Use her flaws against herself; ignite her inner coals
Shake and shift the place she clings- quake her heart's own ground
Wrench the anchors from her grasp soon as each is found.

Tries this drug and some of that, an interesting mix
well that didn't work try something new
now red is green and yellow, blue
no need to fight- we won't hurt you...

Cast into a sea of nothingness, thus isolated, she will sail
Ensured that all her senses, gone her sanity will fail;
And then the giver of the pain brings soft warm blankets and a drink
And gently holds your trembling hand and makes it hard to think.

Takes very careful notes of responses and results
he's looking on as parts of me
are ripping, pulling, tearing free
where there was one there now are three...

Now my escape into hot moist night's like re-entering the womb
I'm breathing freedom's heavy air reborn from sterile tomb,
If in the darkest of your Hell what's left is less than whole,
Though they can take your mind - and life - they can not take your soul.

Copyright held by author, 1993
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                "The War of the Shadows"

I'm a Soldier who's fighting the War of the Shadows.
Its battles are vicious, though men seldom die.
Tis women and children who are its sad victims,
They call out for rescue, but none hear their cry.

Their bodies are broken, their minds are laid open,
Like lab rats and mice they go under the knife.
What monsters would do this to innocent people?
The story will haunt you the rest of your life.

The Nazi's in Europe had all been defeated,
Now the Communist Menace grew large in some eyes.
"The Reds in Korea have brainwashed our flyers,
To find how they did it let's turn loose the Spies."

Now the Spooks are assasins, corrupters, and villains.
Of the mind's subtle function they knew not a whit.
So they hired some doctors, professors and surgeons;
Psychiatry's best would make subjects submit.

The asylums were full of unfortunate women.
Near McGill, Doctor Cameron toiled for the spies.
Electro-convulsion was his chosen method
For making the 'lassies' obey and comply.

With drugs and hypnosis they work on their 'patients'.
In darkness and silence, resistance must fall.
The goal of this research is total compliance.
With torture and terror, the bravest will crawl.

Hypnosis and trauma yield unbidden treasure:
Fear causes the soul to burst open its doors.
Personality fragments and gives birth to others.
These alters they train to be killers and whores.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The truth of these words must have rung in some heads
When powerful patriots played at perversion,
Taking preprogramed teenagers into their beds.

"False Memory Syndrome" the skeptics will tell you.
Its lies and its dreams, its just paranoid fears.
The gentlemen who protect our nation's welfare
Could never conceal such a plot through the years.

My wife was the subject of these 'kind attentions'
As an eight year old girl and more recently still,
By Aldrich, Orne, Estabrooks, and their colleagues.
Thirty more years of work have perfected their skill.

My weapons are phone calls, the Press, and computers,
Researchers I've met, and the papers I've read.
But the Passion that drives me will one day see vict'ry,
When a horrified nation confirms what I've said.

I'm a soldier who's fighting a War in the Shadows.
There's battles I've lost, but there's some that I've won.
I'll struggle forever to end this great Evil,
For more is the pity, the War still goes on.

Copyright held by author, 1995
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HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING ?

My life goes on in endless song
above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest loudly roars
I hear the truth, it liveth;
and though the darkness round me close
songs and the light it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that rock I'm clinging.
Since love is Lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble in their fear
and hear their death knell ringing,
when friends rejoice both far and near
how can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile
our thoughts to them are winging,
when friends by shame are undefiled
how can I keep from singing?

...Enya, 'Shepherd Moons', 1991
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GRACIAS A LA VIDA
(Violetta Parra)

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes una amiga (un hombre)
Que yo amo

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el oido que en todo su ancho
Grabo noche y dia grillos y canarios,
Martillos, turbinos, ladridos, chubascos
Y la voz tan tierna de mi bien amada (amado)

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el sonido y el abecedario
Con el las palabros que pienso y declaro
Madre, amiga (amigo), hermana (hermano),
    y luz alumbrando
La ruta del alma de la (del) que estoy amando.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos,
Playas y desiertos, montanas y llanos,
Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto
Asi yo distingo dicha de quebranto,
Los dos materiales que forman me canto
Y el canto de usteded que es el mismo canto,
Y el canto de todos que es mi proprio canto.

Gracias a la vida .....



THANKS TO LIFE
(Violetta Parra)

Thanks to life that has given me so much
It has given me two eyes, that when I open them
I clearly distinguish tje black from the white
And in the infinite sky, its starry depths,
And from the crowds of people, the friend
    that I love.

Thanks to life that has given me so much
It has given me hearing that in all its breadth
Night and day records crickets and canaries,
Hammers, turbines, barking, splashes,
And the tender voice of my loved one.

Thanks to life that has given me so much
It has given me sound and the alphabet
And with it the words to think and speak
Mother, friend, sister, and the light that brightens
The path of the soul of my loved one.

Thanks to life that has given me so much
It has kept my tired feet walking
With them I walked through the cities and
    the puddles,
Beaches and deserts, mountains and plains
And to your house, your street and your
    courtyard.

Thanks to life that has given me so much
It has given me laughter and it has given me tears
With them I can tell the difference between
    joy and pain,
The two things that make up my song,
And your song that is everyone's song that
    is my own song.

Thanks to life.....

Roy Bailey, 'Freedom Peacefully', (song pub. 1970)
Violetta Parra was one of the artists that inspired the popular song movement in
Chile that was so important in the years leading up to the election of President
Allende. This is a song of solidarity and the struggle for freedom in Central
and South America.


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