What values, Mr. Tagliabue? The values outlined in our history texts or the values of militarism and greed this nation has lived by for over 200 years? (Did Tagliabue or Tillman ever read, say, Zinn's People's History or Blum's Killing Hope?) Can someone do me a favor and list the "best values" of both America and the NFL?
•"Where do we get such men as these? Where to we find these people willing to stand up for America?" asked former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Arizona.
Which America was Tillman standing up for-the bosses at Halliburton or the homeless guy I see every day on the subway steps? Do you know anyone who needed Tillman to "stand up" for them by bringing indiscriminate death and destruction upon Iraq and Afghanistan? Are we so numb to the clichés that we'll let them pass without comment or contemplation?
•More Hayworth: "He chose action rather than words. He just wanted to serve his country."
Again, what country was Tillman serving? The country personified by war criminals like Bush, Clinton, etc.? The country defined by corporate pirates? Indeed, Tillman wasn't serving the two million behind bars or the two million locked in nursing homes against their will. The action he chose over words didn't make our air or water cleaner or stop the suburban sprawl. Tillman could have chosen to serve his country by challenging the corporate-mandated status quo...but that's not how things work around here, is it?
•Even more from Hayworth: "He was a remarkable person. He lived the American dream, and he fought to preserve the American dream and our way of life."
What American dream? The dreams of Wal-Mart, Nike, and The Gap? Whose way of life-Wall Street speculators, professional athletes, and digitally- or surgically-enhanced celebrities? I certainly didn't ask him to kill anyone and he sure wasn't protecting anything I hold dear. Pat Tillman, to me, seemed like a pre-programmed American male...the spawn of decades of corporate conditioning and State-sponsored patriotism.
When Rich Tillman showed up at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden memorial for his big brother Pat, he "wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar," and "asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides." He later stated: "Pat isn't with God. He's f*cking dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f*cking dead.''
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