REMEMBERING OUR MEETING BEFORE 30,000 People

[Pilgrimpapa]

Written during an Important Time in American History.


“FORGIVE ME�

Written expressly for: Barbara Walters & Ronald Reagan
22 January 1981

By: James A. Brandes

The hour was late
Tension high
I didn’t really know
How much time had passed by

Creative has always
Had it’s misunderstandings and pain
But this time it wasn’t
For loss or for gain

Just deep inspiration
An accolade and poem
Today the whole world
Had felt it’d come home

Reagan in office
The hostages free
A real new beginning
The world would now see

News media tried
To cover it all
Truth rained supreme
As they questioned that call

Reynolds, Walters, and Koppel
All human and real
We were one great big family
As every one could feel

America was changed
In a split minute new
It was clear to the World
Our Red, White and Blue

My heart pounded faster
Than it ever had done
Deep in my soul
The answer had come

I felt need to share it
With this family so great
In these minutes our world
Was abolished of hate

Love Inspiration
Truth and Beginnings
In so many ways
America was winning

Barbara Walters, somehow
Seemed always to me
To express all the news
With TRUE reality

I sat, I watched
Heard her every clear word
The accolade and poem
Through her must be heard

I read it to many
And the all agreed
From, General Mark Clark
To the Staff ABC

So my fingers were shaking
As I dialed the phone
Parties still going
Was Walters yet home

Inauguration, fear, and delight
I too had been up
All through
Two nights

What do I say
How to explain
A deep feeling was here
In a new form of pain


“Person to Person�
The operator stated real clear
The next voice I knew
Barbara Walters, was here

“I love you—you’re great�
Like a child words flow
Somehow not correct
But true as they go.

“We’re there again� I said
Just as we started
A Nation under God
We have not departed

Our Crown Prince had come
Under the great King of Kings
And he said a new
Beginning he brings

Then reality had hit
I had broken her sleep
I wanted to die
And hardly could speak

Foregoing the parties
The Inaugural Balls
For much needed sleep
Destroyed by my call

She thanked me
I tried to apologize
The accolade and poem
I now sat aside

“FORGIVE ME�
Really to late the words
But all day words were wrong
To describe what we’d heard

The Nation had listened—
Now it’s all in God’s Hand
And He’s guiding President Reagan
As he guides our land


But, Lord, simply one more
Prayer I request
Somewhere, Heavenly Father,
Give, Barbara Walters, some rest.