A Voice from the Ivory Tower

According to ESPN, University of Massachusetts graduate student Rene Gonzalez has spoken with honeyed lips that gushes forth little morsels of wisdom in a column entitled, "Pat Tillman is not a hero: he got what was coming to him".

Gonzalez writes that Tillman was a "Rambo" who probably acted out of "nationalist patriotic fantasies." In his own neighborhood in Puerto Rico, according to Gonzalez, Tillman would not have been considered a hero, but a "pendejo," or idiot.

...

"You know he was a real Rambo, who wanted to be in the 'real' thick of things," Gonzalez writes in his column, which is posted on the collegiate paper's Web site. "I could tell he was that type of macho guy, from his scowling, beefy face on the CNN pictures."

...

"It wasn't like he was defending the East coast from an invasion of a foreign power. THAT would have been heroic and laudable," Gonzalez writes. "What he did was make himself useful to a foreign invading army, and he paid for it. It's hard to say I have any sympathy for his death because I don't feel like his 'service' was necessary. He wasn't defending me, nor was he defending the Afghani people. He was acting out his macho, patriotic crap and I guess someone with a bigger gun did him in."

So, Pat Tillman looks like 'that type of macho guy'; therefore he is. I suppose, Mr. Gonzalez that I can, by the same license, stereotype you for the way that you look as well? (that is, if I could even get to the Daily Collegian to see your picture)

Driving back from lunch, a radio sports show I was listening to featured a Navy Chief who, although disagreed with Mr. Gonzalez, noted that it is people like himself and Pat Tillman who make it possible for Mr. Gonzalez to make his odious statements. Pat Tillman and the armed forces that he represents defends the very throne in the ivory tower that Mr. Gonzalez speaks down to us from.

Ironic.

Mr. Gonzalez, I would wish that America had more Pat Tillmans amongst its citizens: People who know what they believe in. People who understand duty. People who act, not sit and criticize. And yes, by the same measure I shall too be judged--no excuses from me--I also sit condemned knowing that I have done little to earn freedom.

(I cite the ESPN article because the Daily Collegian, oddly enough, is down after being hammered with traffic.)