Crossing the Line
There is a bit of unsettling news for the families of the soldiers who have lost their lives in the Middle East. Although you might believe that what your son or daughter, or husband or wife, or father or mother was doing oversees was noble and courageous, the truth is, in fact, that they got what was coming to them when they were killed serving their country. That is, at least, how Rene Gonzalez feels.
Rene who? Exactly my point.
A column ran Wednesday in the Daily Collegian, the University of Massachusetts student newspaper, written by Gonzalez, a UMass graduate student, criticizing former Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman for having a “Rambo-like” mentality and saying that he ultimately, “got what was coming to him”.
Most of us are familiar with Pat Tillman’s story. He turned down $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the army with his brother following 9/11 and served as an Army Ranger until he was killed in an attack last week in Afghanistan.
Unfortunately for Americans everywhere, Gonzalez did not run into a similar attack.
Gonzalez, a native Puerto Rican, criticizes Tillman in his column and attacks the American media and their longing to consider everyone a hero. While it might be true that the media considers athletes heroes when they do not deserve it, that was not the case with Pat Tillman and Gonzalez crossed the line.
Gonzalez takes his Tillman bashing to an extreme by saying that they should make a movie about Tillman called “‘Rambo 4: Rambo Attempts to Strike Back at His Former Rambo 3 Taliban Friends, and Gets Killed” and that Tillman would be considered a “pendejo”, or idiot, in his neighborhood.
That is odd because in my middle America neighborhood, Gonzalez would not be considered an intelligent writer, but rather a “heartless asshole”.
In no way, shape or form is a person’s death as a member of the armed forces deserving. In fact, I personally oppose the wars going on in the Middle East, but I would never say that a soldier who loses his life “got what was coming to him”. Actually, it is downright impossible to make a statement like that. Anyone who can do that is either heartless or just plain stupid.
This column is so completely insane and offending, it has already gotten attention on ESPN and warranted an immediate response from the schools president Jack Wilson who said it was “disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature”.
In Gonzalez’ defense, I may be underestimating him. He apparently is a great judge of character and possesses superhuman powers because he knew that Tillman “was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the ‘real’ thick of things, I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures.” Gonzalez, who I am assuming never met Pat Tillman, apparently knew something about Tillman that no one else did, even those closest to him.
The people closest to him did not think he was the Rambo type. They used words like compassionate, selfless and intelligent when describing him. But what do they know? The obviously did not see his “scowling, beefy face”.
Maybe Gonzalez should sit back for a few seconds and think about why he is here in the United States getting his secondary education. It couldn’t possible be because millions of soldiers throughout the years have sacrificed their lives to guarantee our everyday freedoms, could it? An attack on one soldier is an attack on them all and smearing the name of a fallen soldier is an attack on everyone with a family member in the armed forces.
Rene Gonzalez and others like him need to take a cue from Pat Tillman and make a sacrifice for the country. Although Gonzalez probably does not have the “cojones”, as they would say in his Puerto Rican neighborhood, to enlist in the army, he could best serve his country right now by shutting his damn mouth and by letting a grieving family grieve. All of us Americans would appreciate it.
