February 25th & The Cruelest Month

We have a pretty good mix of songs this week, even some country.
There's the history timeline and birthdays, of course.
What I'd like to talk about, here, is the casualties in the Iraq War.

Since the war began the coalition forces (read mostly United States)
have lost 4,277 personnel according to our Defense Department.
That pales in comparison to the civilian losses.

Iraqi casualties are estimates, it's a bit difficult to get accurate figures in a war zone. The total is mind boggling. Up to 88,976 have been lost. I tried to get my mind around that number so I did some googling.

Imagine the entire population of one of the following cities, simply gone. Trenton New Jersey, Halifax England, Port Melbourn Australia, Brantford Canada or Calais France. Can you picture the world outcry if such a disaster happened? That's the kind of tragedy we're looking at.

On a far more personal note, I received sad news last night (Friday evening). Class Act featuring Rita lost their lead male vocalist to cancer.Rick Shouck was a talented musician and a great singer. He loved performing with the band and with Class of 60 Somethin'. More than this, he was also a nice man, devoted to his family. His battle with cancer and his attitude during the fight was and remains an inspiration to all of us.
Rick was 57 years old.

Rick's death, coupled with the loss of Tom Hoover in late January, has been like two terrific body punches. I debated what to do or say "on the air" after Tommy's death and decided on not mentioning it. That was the wrong decision.

I have no idea what either man's religious beliefs were. It doesn't matter. Mahalia Jackson's "How Great Thou Art" will be played for both of them, tonight.

In Memory Of

Rick Shouck

1950 -2008