UMass president rips student column on Tillman

[Bill McBlueState]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/football/nfl/04/29/bc.fbn.umass.tillmanfla.ap/index.html

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) -- A University of Massachusetts graduate student who wrote a campus newspaper column saying former NFL player Pat Tillman was not a hero for being killed while fighting in Afghanistan was sharply criticized Thursday by the school's president.

UMass president Jack Wilson issued a statement saying Rene Gonzalez' comments in The Daily Collegian "are a disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to his country."

In his column, which ran Wednesday on the opinion page and was posted on the newspaper's Web site, Gonzalez called the former Arizona Cardinals safety a "G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him."

(more at the above website)

The column itself should be at http://www.dailycollegian.com , but the site's too busy at the moment.

[Heyo]

1. The kid deserves it....

He does....with free speech comes the responsibility to accept the consequences of what you say.

Heyo

[Jeezwhiz]

4. Free Speech

The freepers will be checking this guy's visa status, you can bet on that.

[resident bunnypants]

9. Actually, they sort of are.

I guess nobody explained to these scholars and "patriots" that all Puerto Ricans are born USA citizens.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1126749/posts

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. Well, no one ever accused them of knowing their own country or history.n/t

[Coventina]

2. The flags here at ASU are still at half-mast

His death was a BIG DEAL here in AZ

[el_gato]

I don't think he was a hero either

Just because you buy into propaganda and then
die because of it, does that make you a hero?

I think it took alot of bravery to do what Tilman
did but I think of him more as a tragic figure and a victim.

[Heyo]

5. Calling him a "victim"..

.. is almost as disrespectful as what the kid said...

So you're saying he didn't have all his faculties and is too stupid to make an educated decision? Not everybody thinks like you, that's what people don't realize.

Heyo

[el_gato]

12. so what?

Your outrage amuses me.

[Heyo]

14. Outrage?

:dunce:

[TX-RAT]

16. I find your amusement over this as sicking as that students column

[mistertrickster]

3. I agree . . . with the president. This is what the right-wing kills us

for--and justifiably.

It doesn't matter how gung-ho the man was, he didn't "get what was coming to him." Nobody DESERVES to die for supporting or not supporting a war.

Hate the war, support the soldiers.

[Dhalgren]

6. Even the one's killing children at traffic checkpoints?

[callous taoboy]

8. Right on, MrTrickster!

[bobbyboucher]

18. Snore.

Save it. If you believe everybody should think the same then you should join the other party.

[Zolok]

7. He was hunting Bin Laden...

an entirely worthwhile occupation IMHO.

I'll bet a lot of the soldiers in Iraq wish they were hunting OBL right about now.

Well I haven't read the article so I won't pass final judgement...I'm only say that dopey undergrad stuff like this ran all the time in the Collegian when I was in graduate school @ UMass Amherst.

I lived next door to the campus conservative bund...a bunch of utterly boring louts in every way. Their notion of iconoclastic behavior was wishing death on Senator Kennedy.

www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com

[Dhalgren]

11. Tilman also fought in Iraq, too.

I think that it is becoming harder and harder, as this grusome war contiues for people to separate the soliders fighting the war from the war. These aren't luckless draftees over there (not yet, anyway) - these are volunteers, underpaid mercenaries is what you get with a "professional" military. The Brits had a hard time with this in their past and we seem to be entering into a phase where we are having it, too.

[Pastiche423]

13. Why is hunting OBL

an entirely worthwhile occupation?

There has been no proof given to us that OBL was the one behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Powell promised a "white paper" very shortly after the attacks, proving who did. But, that never materialized.

Do you always believe your government? That's quite a naive and nationalistic thing to do, eh?

[Deaner1971]

20. Riiiiight

Now OSB is an innocent bystander...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. Hero is a difficult word/concept...

Hmm... While I agree in spirit with what the president is saying, I think this points to a larger problem: hero worship. "Hero" in this context is a little bit too close to "Martyr" for me. And we all know where that leads.
With that said, what the kid did was ludicrious and the prez has every right to beat him down for it. He knew damn well what he was doing - namely, calling attention to himself by exploiting the death of a human being for sensational purposes. It's completely disrespectful, no matter what your views are, to express them in this manner.
For the people who agree with what this kid wrote, God help you if your kid ever decides to join the army and gets killed. I'm sure this is just the kind of stuff you'd like to have written about your child.

[Dhalgren]

15. I agree that the author was beyond the pale

with the comment that Tilman "deserved what he got". Neither I, nor that author, knows what Tilman deserved. However, it was an Op-Ed piece. His opinion may be anathema to you, but it is his "opinion".

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. Agreed.

I agree totally. He has every right to express it. And I and the university president and anyone else who disagree have a right to tell him to %$@#%# himself:

While recognizing Gonzalez' right to free speech, Wilson said the student owes Tillman a "debt of gratitude," and said he should apologize to Tillman's friends and family.

Had the prez said that this shouldn't be published, then I'd have a BIG problem with him.

[Moderator]

21. Duplicate, please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x518898