Something for the weekend: Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier. Popular in all our wars, with its bitter lament for the parting of lovers, the song was especially poignant after the Civil War. A vast number of women, North and South, were left as widows. Just as many were young women whose beaus never returned from the War. It is easy to mark the beginning and ending dates of Wars, but often the date is illusory for the loved ones left behind. For them the sorrow of the War does not end until their lives ended. Every soldier who died in the War usually left behind him parents and siblings, friends, and often a wife or sweetheart, and too frequently, children. For them the pain of memory would remain too fresh, tinged perhaps with pride for the courage their soldier had displayed in life. Something to recall this Fourth of July this year. Our freedom has been purchased at a high price, and it has not been paid only by those who served.
Donald R. McClarey
Paul Zummo
Almost Chosen People 