WHAT-A-RUSH! and HO-ly COW!!!
Yesterday was a day full of excitement, promise, a bit of frustration, and a sense of... delighted bemusement...?
My day started at about 7 am, ET, when I woke up, rushed to shower and get "prettified," hooked up to the wired network, checked my mic and headphone settings, and clicked on the "Listen Now" button at Wide Awakes Radio.
Kender, God bless him, left a message on my cell-phone, "R'cat, you're about the closest thing we've got to a Padre, so one or two petitions to the Guy Upstairs would be welcome!" It was an honor to pray on behalf of the WARadio crew and talent, and if I may, I'm going to post this prayer which I shared with a dear friend this morning:
Father, help us all remember that with all the excitement of WAR, and all the work that needs to be done, help us remember to glorify You. Help us get rest. Help us look for ways to help each other, to show kindness and courtesy to our brothers and sisters. Help us show Your love in this family, and let it be an example that gives You glory...
Father, bring us together AS a family. Bless us with that "second thought," so we may give the benefit of the doubt, or ask honest and gentle questions. I ask You to turn our hearts to one another, to knit us closely and tightly together, so we may be unified in purpose.
And then... LAUNCH!
Kender opened with his favorite recording of our National Anthem, sung a capella. Not only was the first, well known verse broadcast, but also the little-sung final verse:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh, shivers of delight and awe! Kender followed up on that by reminding American Citizens that we are not children, nor are we slaves, to crave the nannyship of the government. We are created equal, to pursue life, liberty and happiness - not the government dole, which is beneath the dignity and ought to chafe the pride of freeborn men and women.
God bless you, Kender - all this hard work, your passion and drive... K-man, beloved brother... You ROCK!
Then Rick Moran (his comment on our server, LOL) came online with his wonderful, uplifting talk about American exceptionalism. I really hope someone ripped that stream, because I want to have it so I can drag it out and savor it on a regular basis!
Justin (his comments on yesterday) stepped on with Rick, but unfortunately, I had to step away from the computer at that time, so I only got the first part. But what I heard made my heart sing! Justin is articulate and poised, so sometimes it's hard to remember that he's only, what?, sixteen? With young men and women of this quality and character entering the ranks of voting citizens, America will be stronger than ever!
At 11 a.m., ET, I was honored to join Cao and Terry for an hour of chatting and discussion. All of us - ALL of us - expressed our support of the brave men and women in our Armed Forces, and said how greatful we are to them for their service and sacrifices. Kender had to IM me once or twice and remind me to plug the phone number (which is 888-407-1776, by the way. 8-8-8-Fourth-0-July-1776!) Cao's remaks are over here, but Terry hasn't posted anything about yesterday yet. [pointed look, LOL ;-) ]
Wow - for all my worries, I think we did great! Of course, I wasn't solo: I didn't have to carry the show myself, I had two brilliant and talented people to talk with. It was fun! I think I'd love to do that again someday. Perhaps Kender will allow me to play hostess and facilitator again sometime. I rather like asking questions and smoothing a discussion along from the background...
Anyway, after that, I went and worked on feeding my family, so I was again off-line for a while. However, I popped back on just in time to hear Jay, from Stop the ACLU and Justin talking with "Linda" from the Chicago area, who seemed to believe everything the ACLU had posted on their webpage. By the time Jay and Justin got through with her, some small light just may have penetrated Linda's head and brought some common sense with it.
Then, I had the honor and pleasure of IM-ing with Justin and the Loyal Citizens at the Rott's Instant Bark while that big beautiful bird, the Discovery, launched out into her proper habitat - space. Ms. Underestimated has a fantastic post up about it, and you should go over and enjoy it.
Of course, North Korea got a bit feisty at that point, launching - eventually - a total of seven missiles. I was frantically bouncing between two IMs (Justin and the Rott), looking for news links online, watching FoxNews, and keeping an ear on the stream... all trying to get as much accurate info to Justin to broadcast on WAR as quickly as possible.
Wow. Just... WOW!!! With all that excitement, all the listeners we had, the temporary server staggering under the load, and Kender needing to pull the stream...
I'm exhausted!
I'll be taking the next few days to record some public service announcements, promos for WAR and Sunday Thoughts, and also some ads for a few excellent charities... But Wide Awakes Radio will be back soon, and in the meantime, all of the WARadio hosts are delighted and greatful for all your interest and enthusiasm.
So, wait for us - we'll be back real soon!
I love the full version of the Poem that is the Anthem!
If you ever get the chance you owe it to yourself to listen to a FULL version played on 19th century instruments, and played, and sung to the melody of the Drinking Song it was styled on originally.
THAT is how Americans performed the piece before the mid-20th century, and there IS a big difference.
As much as I like certain MODERN performances, give me the original version any day!
Posted by: Kiril, The Mad Macedonian | July 05, 2006 at 12:57 PM
OOPS!
I meant EARLY 2OTH century! ;-D
Getting senile in my old age!
Posted by: Kiril, The Mad Macedonian | July 05, 2006 at 01:22 PM