NationStates Jolt Archive

Another Perspective
The Really Free Safety
By Reid Collins
Published 7/3/2002 12:22:00 AM (http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=4585)

It ain’t all hot dogs, sunburn and fireworks. Some quiet moment on July Fourth finds many folk looking for affirmation, significance in the day. This year? There’s the latest CEO-CFO scandal, the betrayal in the boardrooms, tragedies in the fog of a far-off war, the strumming fear of the latest terrorist warnings, the chasms of the unknown. But there is something else, worth a very long thought. The decision of Pat Tillman.

He is 25. Born in San Jose, California, a graduate of Arizona State where he played football so well he was the Pac-10 conference defensive player of the year in 1997, who graduated in three-and-a-half years with a 3.84 grade-point average and was drafted by the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Tillman turned down an offer of $9 million over five years to play for St. Louis because he was loyal to the Cardinals, who were offering him $3.6 million over the next three years. Tillman had it all. He married his high school sweetheart, Marie, honeymooned in Bora Bora in May, and returned to tell his agent and his coach of his decision. Tillman was joining the army. He wants to be a Ranger.

Where was the self-aggrandizing press conference to jingle the golden chains and flash the diamond earrings and beat the patriotic chest? There wasn’t one. His agent says the one thing Tillman absolutely will not do is talk about himself or his decision. Cardinals’ coach Dave McGinnis says, "It’s not just a snap decision. You’re not dealing with a guy who’s real shallow. You’re dealing with a guy whose waters run pretty deep." Tillman had McGinnis make the announcement and through the team Tillman declined all interview requests. His agent, Frank Bauer, says he tried to talk the safety into playing a few more years and then joining the Army. "’If I wait,’" Bauer quotes Tillman as saying, "’I won’t be able to get into the special areas I want to get into.’" This is the closest thing you’ll get to a quote from Tillman himself. He is adamant about no interviews.

Have another hot dog and consider giving up $100,000 a month and the life of a sports hero for an E-4’s salary of $1,400 a month and the anonymity of an Army uniform. Lt. General Dennis Cavin, who oversees recruiting and initial training, says simply, "That is powerful." Tillman hasn’t said so, but scuttlebutt is that September 11 had something to do with his decision. He took the oath of enlistment in Chandler, Arizona, May 31, and is due to report to Fort Benning, Georgia, July 8.

Tillman will be 28 when he is mustered out, having sacrificed three vital years in a demanding sport. It may be tough to give up Ranger tabs for shoulder pads again. Teammates were not greatly surprised by his decision. They knew he hears a different drummer. That snare drummer in the Spirit of ’76. So, if you are short on inspiration this July 4th, hoist one to a man who is not, Pat Tillman, a truly free safety.


Reid Collins is a former CBS and CNN news correspondent.

So sad that no one - as of yet - had even taken the time answer the poll question. I'm a realist and I understand that reading the article would be too big of a stretch.

Pat Tillman, one of the 36
Dennis Prager
April 27, 2004 (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20040427.shtml)


There is a famous Jewish legend that holds that at any given time, there are 36 tzadikim -- particularly good people -- living on earth. Thanks to them, the world does not self-destruct. If the number were to decline, the world would end.

I have always wondered whether this belief is optimistic or pessimistic.

The answer, I have concluded, depends on an individual's point of view. If you believe that there are many particularly good people on earth, the legend is optimistic. If the world needs only 36 such people to continue its existence, we have nothing to worry about.

On the other hand, what if the legend implies that there are only 36 such people? Then we have a lot to worry about.

I, for one, am torn. On the one hand, I have met a few such moral giants in my lifetime, and I am only one person. On the other hand, they sure are rare, and they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by moral dwarfs.

From what I know about Pat Tillman, he sounds like he was one of the 36. He embodied goodness, idealism, strength and character in a way that is increasingly rare.

First, he did something almost none of us would do. He voluntarily risked his life to fight evil and serve his country rather than become a multi-millionaire, deified pro football player. Instead, he decided to forgo all that money, all that glory and all that fame, and fight for America in a remote corner of Afghanistan.

Second, he made this decision and sought no credit for it. He refused to give interviews about his decision.

Third, and perhaps most telling, the Washington Times reported that, "When in high school, Sgt. Tillman beat up someone who had assaulted his friend and ended up serving 30 days in a juvenile-detention facility."

Apparently beating up bullies was a deep yearning in Tillman from his youth. That is, after all, exactly what he did and what America is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq -- beating up bullies. Pat Tillman hated evil. That alone puts him in a distinct minority in today's world.

Pat Tillman would have been reviled in Japan. The three Japanese held hostage in Iraq are, according to the New York Times, the three most hated people in Japan today. You would think that they would be honored in Japan for volunteering to go to Iraq to help the Iraqi people build a prosperous, healthy and free society. But they caused the Japanese trouble when they were held hostage, and in Japan you are not celebrated for doing good, but for not sticking out.

Pat Tillman would be regarded as a fool by many Americans. Give up a pro football career and pro football salary to join the Army? Is he an idiot? Pat Tillman would be regarded as another dumb American in much of Europe, where people believe that life's purpose is largely to make love, not war.

Pat Tillman would be regarded as an immoral man by the growing number of pacifists within the religious and secular Left. He volunteered to kill people. What a lowlife.

Thank God that much of America is talking about and revering the name Pat Tillman. That means we still have hope. A society's moral temperature can be measured in part by whom it celebrates. And for much of my lifetime, the greatest adoration has been showered on the narcissistic and the shallow -- from Britney Spears to Barry Bonds to Norman Mailer.

Most people who are concerned with good and evil are preoccupied with understanding those who do evil. This is easily confirmed by any perusal of a library or bookstore's shelves. The ratio of books attempting to explain evil to books attempting to explain good is probably a thousand to one. Why? Because of our naive belief that goodness is normal, and that it is the abnormal evil ones who need to be explained.

This is nonsense.

The fact is that the truly good are abnormal. It is the Pat Tillmans, not the fanatical Muslims who killed him, who need to be studied. For if we do not figure out how to make more Pat Tillmans here in America and throughout the world, we and the world will self-destruct. There are only 36 of them.

http://boortz.com/images/tillman_hero.jpg

FCUK (http://www.frenchconnection.com/)(no moderation needed, it's a legitimate company name :shock: :lol: ) Ted Rall :!: