Ruminations in Korea

Comment by Plunge

24 April 2004 @ 2:21 am

Thanks Jeff. One of the nicer tributes I’ve read. He was truly an amazing person.

Comment by Dan Mehlhorn

24 April 2004 @ 3:02 am

I wish more Americans had Pat’s clarity of thought and purity of values.

I’m also grateful for the service of the KimcheeGI and CptPatti. Two adoptees that are All American any way you wish to slice it. I wholeheartedly thank them and their families.

Comment by Jae

24 April 2004 @ 3:07 am

Such a touching story, Jeff. He really lived an extraordinary life… Amazing and sad at the same time…

Comment by Dan Mehlhorn

24 April 2004 @ 3:41 am

Jae,

The only sad thing about Pat Tillman’s life is that it was short.

Remember, there are many Pat Tillmans in the service, they just never played in the NFL. Two that I know of are the KimcheeGI and CptPatti.

Many others fought and some died in Korea at places like the Chosan Resivoir, the Punch Bowl, Inchon, …

No one appreciates these people until they’re gone.

Comment by Scott-in-Japan

24 April 2004 @ 3:54 am

Bless Tillman and little his brother. The US has a lot of folks fighting because they believe. More than you will hear of through tv, the newspaper, or radio.

Comment by Silly Sally

24 April 2004 @ 9:49 am

Many capable men give up lucrative careers for wartime service. The American Army, these days, is becoming a forum for white Anglo-Saxon male adventurers of privilege seeking glory. Gone are the days of drafted blacks and poor-white trash being being chewed-up and spit-out by war. Men, such as Tillman, consider war a chance to realize their deepest need: a chance for heroism — something civilian life will never confer.

The same need compels bored Muslim men to fight against America. Young men, especially, can feel a deep need to throw themselves into a life or death struggle: to prove their meddle. Their bravery comes from an unconscious conviction it’s the guy next to him — who will die. All of us, deep down, feel the universe will protect our “specialness” from death.

We should immediately suspect an espousal of patriotism or religion (rationalizations) as a disguise for this deep male need for heroism; and understand “bravery” is often another word for feeling special — and,therefore — immortal.

You all know it’s true — so spare the false piety of special honorifics for Tillman.

He is an American soldier who died in battle: a hero amongst other American heroes.

Comment by A Gray

24 April 2004 @ 11:06 am

The palpable anger in your post (Silly Sally) is sure to get similar responses in return. Is that why you did it? What is the need that drives you to spend time reading and writing in blogs?

Some of the motivations that you describe may apply. I’m sure you have a general point. But general points are easy to make with no research and little thought required. General points usually just require looking inside ourselves, finding the (best or) worst you can see, and then applying it to others. Of course, you’re right sometimes, because everyone, after all, is human. But you’re going to be wrong just as often, because regardless of how “right” it feels, you actually don’t know what goes on inside the minds of others, whether Arab or American.

When you take the next step and ascribe that patriotism and religion are “rationalizations” for a “deep need…” for…whatever…I’m afraid I’ve lost interest. This is amateurish armchair psychology. Easy to write. No pain for you. No mental cost either. But there is a motivation, so what is it? Maybe your own interior world and rationalizations/convictions (or lack of them) is worth exploring more than the motivations and convictions of others you don’t know.

Comment by Silly Sally

24 April 2004 @ 11:58 am

Mr. Gray,

If someone tears down a false idol — do you call it a hate crime?

As a woman I admire Tillman’s pagan vitality– It’s quite manly. But, the false piety of smarmy eulogies from the chattering class is fair game.

Tillman was a casualty of a “DEEP NEED”– the desperate desire for male heroism. A universal need in every race. Such a truth is not arm-chair psychology — just fact.

Now was his sacrifice worthy? As a Brit, I believe his sacrifice in the war against barbarism makes his death worthy. Just as worthy as the sacrifices of others lying still under British and American flags.

Tillman is a hero, amongst other heroes.

Comment by A Gray

24 April 2004 @ 5:30 pm

I don’t have a problem with your opinion but with your certainty about it. You actually don’t know what prompted this man to become a soldier, and you are not qualified to make broad statements about what motivates all men (in all times, cultures, places, etc) to do the things they do.

I’m all for shooting down idols, starting with the ones we ourselves hold onto. I also think that “heroism” for it’s own sake would be an “idol” (something that people might vainly hold onto for some kind of salvation but that is just a human construction). That’s my opinion. But I also think that people can have faith that is not idolotry; in God, not in a “god” that’s constructed in their minds (although you could certainly argue this point from certain veins of modern psychology).

I’m I being idealist to make a statement of faith like this? Is it cynical to debate the truth of the matter when you don’t believe anything is really true?

Maybe I’ve misread your post, so please correct me if you think that’s the case. The more I look at what you write, though, I just see layers of contradictions.

You admire the “pagan vitality” of a poor, misguided victim of his own uncomprehended needs… Sounds a lot like the attraction that David Beckham engenders in British women. It’s obviously not his mind that attracted you but some sweaty fantasy perhaps…?

You attack the “swarmy eulogy” with a cynical rant. Warm fuzzies melting in the heat. Well, you do have a point here. I’m not a big fan of swarmy or cynical. They’re both too easy.

Comment by Dan Mehlhorn

25 April 2004 @ 6:07 am

Sally, go soak your head.

If Pat Tillman wanted Hero worship. He had it in the NFL. You are dead wrong and an angry piece of work, too.

Comment by YeOldeToaste

25 April 2004 @ 11:03 am

I agree with Sally in a narrowly complete sense. And though roads of hedonism I’ve embarked upon prevent me from wasting time to eloquently state my case on the comments section of my older brother’s blog, I thing our (yes Sally, I’m co-opting your argument) runs like this:

1) Adventure seeking Anglo-boy with a sense of “War Service = The grandest kind of heroism” heads in to the Army while his country is at war.

(Notice he didn’t join the services when we were not officially at war. You know, it’s like my longstanding theory that the real heroes of the development of California were the ones stealing -I mean cultivating and irrigating- the land long before dust storms in the great basin forced the johnny-come-latelys to start working there.

2) Said Anglo-boy gives up his life of comfort for a ’cause’. He receives a cool gun, and the admiration of many.

3) Dude gets a hell forged anti-coaltion bullet through his all too tender flesh. We give a fuck for 20 minutes.

You’ll politely excuse me if I don’t give him the Jonas Salk award for contributions to the building of a better world.

-Adam

Comment by Silly Sally

26 April 2004 @ 4:25 pm

Mr. Gray,

It appears we have the same perspective: heroism can be a form of self-worship. Worship should be exclusively reserved for a God-ideal.

Notwithstanding, I am a woman and cannot deny I am attracted to sweaty virility. It’s alot more attractive than a pudgy Canadian man/child who worships Mother Earth as a display of his “sensitivity” and takes pride in his male- oriented cosmetics.

Give me a real man — not, a metro-sexual.

Comment by Dan Mehlhorn

26 April 2004 @ 10:13 pm

Adam,

Go soak your head, too.

Comment by Kathryn

1 June 2004 @ 3:18 am

Well there should be no war at all.everyone should get along with each other.

Comment by Michael Omohundro

25 August 2006 @ 1:39 am

I have always felt that it is saddest for Pat Tillman’s family to suffer this lost. I personally feel that he got caught up in the propaganda and war machine, but he went out and did what he thought was right. RIP Pat Tillman.