Memorial Day Verse - "It is the Soldier, not the . . ."

[Tom Zurinskas]

A Memorial Day poem in tradspel and truespel phonetics

http://justpaste.it/vets2

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk




> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Memorial Day Verse - "It is the Soldier, not the . . ."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Today Barry Popik asked some list members about a popular verse using
> the repeated motif "It is the veteran, not the . . . ". He traced it
> back to November 1997 and suggested sharing the query with ADS-L.
>
> There is a variant using a motif of "It is the soldier, not the . .
> .". I performed a preliminary exploration of this version in March
> 2012. Here is some data.
>
> In June 1993 a columnist in Texas attributed a version of the saying
> to "Father Denis E. O'Brien, M.M., of St. Pius X in Casa View."
>
> [ref] 1993 June 13, Dallas Morning News, Semper Fidelis isn't just a
> motto for him by Jim Wright, Page 7J, Dallas, Texas (NewsBank Access
> World News) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Father O'Brien has no problems reconciling his life as a man of the
> cloth these past 40 years and those early years when he was a man of
> the Corps. As he made clear in these words of his Memorial Day
> invocation for the sacrifices by all the young Americans who have
> fought for their country:
>
> "It is the soldier , not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the
> press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of
> speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us
> freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who
> serves beneath the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag who
> allows the protester to burn the flag."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Ann Landers credited Father Denis Edward O'Brien in a column published
> in November 1999.
>
> Wikquote has an entry advancing a claim of coinage by a person named
> Charles Province. The Wiki history indicated that the entry was
> created "14 November 2005". The entry does not give a date for the
> coinage. The webpage the entry points to has the following line:
> "Copyright Charles M. Province, 1970, 2005":
>
> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Province
> http://www.pattonhq.com/koreamemorial.html
>
> Garson
>
> [Begin forwarded email excerpt]
>
> From: Barry Popik
> Date: Mon, May 27, 2013 at 11:08 AM
> Subject: "It is the veteran not the..." verse authorship?
>
> Who wrote "It is the veteran, not the..." verses and when?
> ...
> The poem has several verses that credit the veteran for giving us our
> freedoms. It has sprung out of nowhere to become THE POEM of countless
> emails every Memorial Day (and Veterans Day).
> ...
> Google News has it since at least 1997:
> ...
> The Gazette : West Branch man preserves memories of Civil...
> $3.50 -
> The Gazette - Nov 11, 1997
> WEST BRANCH - It is the veteran, not the press, who gives us freedom
> of the press. It is the veteran, not the poet, who gives us freedom of
> speech. It is the ...
>
> [End forwarded email excerpt]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------
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