No Kisses, No Cameras

It's week number two my rock-band-as-a-blog project. This week's song is "No Kisses, No Cameras".

In 2004, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced a measure that would instruct the Pentagon to allow photographers to take pictures of the flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and it was defeated 54-39. Now that there's a Democratic majority, it's time to try again.

Max and the Marginalized write and record one song per week and post every Thursday. Archives are at www.myspace.com/maxandthemarginalized

No Kisses, No Cameras

A jet plane flies above the city

It could be any, the tower tells the captain you are clear

At any time to drop the landing gear

They only fly this run at midnight

The whirring engines, the old folks all too fast asleep to hear

Their memories of flag-draped souvenirs

In the flashing bulbs of yesteryear

No kisses, no cameras

We won't make that mistake this time around

No disrespect to your wishes

These flimsy sticks are propping up morale

No kisses, no cameras allowed

From the shelter I sit under

My head it wonders, do they really wrap those coffins up in flags

Ain't it cheaper just to send them home in bags

Charge it back to grieving mothers

And younger brothers all praying that their toes will stay untagged

The obituary's lost among the ads

In the back page of that local rag

No kisses, no cameras

We won't make that mistake this time around

No disrespect to the Mrs.

You wouldn't want her to see that, would you now

No kisses, no cameras allowed

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Comments

[Dandy12]

10:31 AM on 10/19/2007

A flag draped coffin sends a powerful message.
This is a pointless war, and if anything we are cutting our own throats with Mid-East oil and with this administration's failure in foreign policy. We are despised and more isolated in the world than ever. Even the Russians are more popular these days...

[macfee]

01:43 AM on 10/20/2007

War can have a point?

[scooperss]

10:02 AM on 10/19/2007

Yes it's time to take up that legislation again. George Stephanopolous (sp) gives the names on Sundays but people need to see for it to be real.Force the supporters to see what they have wrought at breakfast, lunch and dinner.See if they can still enjoy their meals knowing somewhere in the US a family will never have one member at another family gathering.

[sparkandy]

07:19 AM on 10/19/2007

Well said. But they can only hide it to a certain extent. I was deplaning in Dallas last month when they off loaded the coffin of a fallen soldier. There was an honor guard of the military and local law enforcement. The Flight Attendant annonced that if we looked out of the right side of the plane we could see it. EVERYONE stopped and stood quietly and watched in respectful silence as the coffin painted with an American flag was greeted and taken away. It makes my ANGRY that someone lost their little girl this way.

[macfee]

01:50 AM on 10/20/2007

Don't belittle her death by calling her a "little girl". Respect how people choose to met the end. It may be in a war you oppose in service to a government you oppose for an agenda you oppose but it was her death to have.

Soldiers die, it's what they do. The rest of us have to carry the weight of their willingness each time we vote.

[Aramingo]

07:17 AM on 10/19/2007

That whole ban said to me that the men who sent our troops off to war don't have the guts to face the consequences of the actions. Pathetic.

[mamacat]

06:08 AM on 10/19/2007

Oft repeated, still true: those who commit evil do not want the truth to be told, or in this case, to be seen.