5 November 2009. Svete Duje, the patron saint of Split, was beheaded during the Emperor Diocletian's persecutions of Christians on this day in 304 AD. Otherwise 5 November 2009 was just a Thursday, a day like any other. Until...
Brrrringgggg! Brrrringgg! A text message on my phone. What might this be? It was from my son who is in the US Army. He was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. "I'm ok". That was it. Nothing more. What might he be ok from?
Dong! Dong! The email thing on my computer sounded. There was an email from my son's wife. It was terse. "He is ok. There is a total lockdown on communications right now. I will let you know more as soon as I hear from him."
"I'm ok." "He is ok." FROM WHATTTT???? FROM WHAT IS HE OK????? My head was screaming as I quickly googled "Fort Hood Texas." There it was. Some muslim person had shot up the place. Or was shooting up the place. The news on the internet read like it was still happening.
Was he ok as in wounded and got a message out? Was he ok just before the fire fight continued into a new phase? Or was he ok ok? There was no way to know. There was no way to find out until the next time he could text his dear wife.
All anyone seemed to know was there had been a shooting and a bunch of people were dead and more were wounded. I had to respond in some way or go crazy with worry.
I started working on a video but nothing worked right. I knew the song I wanted but I couldn't get it for some reason, so I recorded it. The clicks you hear in the music are not from a gun but from my cigarette lighter. The sounds seemed to fit the story so I left them in the sound track. The music ends before the end of the song. The story wasn't finished either.
Pjesma prijatelju - Song to a freind
Tko bi mogao, druze moj
veslati bez vesala
jedriti bez jedara,
reci mi, druze moj
I tko bi mogao, druze moj
kada izgubi svog prijatelja vjernog
sakriti suze i bol
reci mi, druze moj
Ja bi mogao, druze moj
veslati bez vesala
jedriti bez jedara
vjeruj mi, druze moj
Al' ne bi mogao, druze moj
kada izgubim svog prijatelja vjernog
sakriti suze i bol
vjeruj mi, druze moj
"Druze," I know what this word means inside my heart, but I do not know how to translate exactly on english. Its related to "dragi", as in "dear or beloved" but that's not exactly it. I am going to leave it untranslated and just hope you get the drift.
Who could, druze mine
row without oars
Sailing without sails,
Tell me, druze mine
And who could, druze mine
when you lose your faithful friend
hide the tears and pain
Tell me, druze mine
I could, druze moj
row without oars
Sailing without sails
Believe me, druze mine
but I could not, druze mine
when you lose your faithful friend
hide the tears and pain
Believe me, druze mine
I'm sorry, I cannot to write any more today. There is too much salty water on my face to write much more. Just few days ago they catch one more hate filled man want kill even more peoples on Fort Hood and the emotions of that Thursday morning and Friday and Saturday and Sunday are still too painful. Other than this, that was an ordinary day in 2009, the day of Svete Duje, who was killed for being a Christian.
This was, and is, my humble tribute to those who died that day, and to those who were injured, and to those who sprang skillfully and swiftly into action to prevent further losses.
Boze blagoslov vojnike i sav narod u Fort Hood Texas
God bless the soldiers and all the people in Fort Hood Texas
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,
Canovals, a.k.a Slavonac
This is a very touching tribute. I regret it's necessity. I do not understand the kind of hatred that leads to this kind of violence. Less do I understand that this is directed by God. Not by the kind and loving God that I know.
ReplyDeleteCertainly this killing was not directed by the one true God. I found out later that in fact my son was in the first response team and that there were a few tense moments for him in all this. It appears to me that everyone handled this with high professionalism.
ReplyDelete