(04/29/04)
As pretty much all of you know, former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman was killed in combat last week. He got a lot of media attention, and a lot of people said a lot of stuff about him. And then I stumbled across this article on ESPN. This Rene Gonzalez character, a student working toward a Political Science Ph.D. at UMass, decided to write an op-ed piece titled "Pat Tillman is not a hero: he got what was coming to him."
I was fairly surprised. I would have expected a "It's a shame that Pat Tillman had to die for an unjust cause" or something to that effect from some people, but this article was fairly shocking. To my surprise, I looked up Gonzalez's information to find that he's a freaking doctoral candidate in Political Science. You're telling me they're giving out Ph.D.'s to people with subpar writing skills? An excerpt:
"I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures. Well, he got his wish. Even Rambo got shot in the third movie, but in real life, you die as a result of being shot. They should call Pat Tillman's army life 'Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed.'"
Let's see here. He makes fun of his target's physical appearance. Very classy. He makes a fairly irrelevant pop-culture reference in the context of certain historical facts. Is this an attempt at humor? If so, Gonzalez is an utter failure. I know I frequently have difficulty staying on topic or expressing a coherent string of thoughts, but this is just bad. This style (in the loosest sense of the word) of writing is generally only found on Internet message boards frequented by 16-year-olds. I wish I could read the whole article, but the Daily Collegian website is down from too much traffic.
I don't have a problem with people who view American foreign policy as flawed. I don't have a problem with people who criticize the United States' involvement in Iraq. It's just that he's criticizing the war in Afghanistan. He's criticizing every soldier who decided to enlist because of desire to serve his country. He's saying that every American soldier who has died in combat in the last 3 years DESERVED TO DIE for volunteering to fight. What kind of ridiculous reasoning is this? But then UMass President Jack Wilson called the article "disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature." Focus on the intellectually immature, and remind yourself that this guy will probably be known as DOCTOR Rene Gonzalez someday. And you guys wonder why I have no respect for academic credentials.
I, for one, love the freedom of speech our great country provides. I love it when newspapers decide to go ahead and run an absurd article, because people frequently remember their freedom to speak but forget that they are going to be held accountable to the things they write or say.
Excercise your freedom of speech by giving Rene a call. His phone number is (413) 253-9639. His email address is rene@student.umass.edu. Too bad the UMass directory doesn't give physical address. But if you're in the region, he shouldn't be too hard to find. Of course, your freedom of speech has its limitations, so keep it mature and don't threaten his life or property. Racial bigotry would be unnecessary also.
