[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           ODE TO FITZSIMONS

                                 ______


                        HON. PATRICIA SCHROEDER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 14, 1995
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Florence Gasser, whose father was a 
World War I veteran, was so disturbed about the proposal to close 
Fitzsimons Army Medical Center that she wrote a poem in protest. I 
would like to share Mrs. Gasser's poem with my colleagues:
                        For Whom the Knell Tolls

     Who needs a veteran's hospital
     In these cloudless peaceful times?
     Who cares that four generations fought,
     In those lands of different clime?

     This century ends with record wars,
     Many wounded strewn along the way,
     Don't we have moral obligation,
     To take care of all of them today?

     If you remove their anchors now
     Should old soldiers just fade away?
     Places like Fitzsimons long has been
     Security in world of disarray.

     Oh, ``they'll get help,'' indifferent say,
     As protest cries, echo in nation;
     To most veterans change will seem,
     Like a physical amputation.

     Fitzsimons spreads out protective arms
     To those sick in body and spirit too;
     To close its doors, will cruelly state,
     Find help elsewhere, then start anew.

     Those left groping at hospital door,
     Need assurance old Fitz gave heartily;
     That they could go on with their lives,
     Through all of their sickness and injury.

     Those who bled on foreign fields,
     And served their country very well,
     Should not see Fitzsimons lights go out
     And hear that sorrowful, hopeless knell.
     

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