"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate lies," Jessica Lynch, former U.S. Army private, speaking before a Congressional committee 4/24/07.
Notably, Ms. Lynch's comments before Congress today were largely hidden deep within the supposed bigger story of the "friendly fire" death of Pat Tillman. A former NFL football player. I very much admire Ms. Lynch's bravery in not sticking to the wag-the-dog company line. I just wish her heroism in speaking out received equal coverage to that of the sports hero. I agree with Lynch that the "American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes". Football players are simply considered more important than regular folks. In other words, adult life really is just a continuation of high school.
Or perhaps Lynch's story makes us more uncomfortable because: 1. she's not dead, and hero stories are best told when the idol isn't among us anymore; 2. so many of us fell for, and really wish for, the invented story of Pvt. Jessica Lynch to be true. Or maybe the media just thinks we want it that way.
I don't want it that way. Jessica Lynch should get just as much press and adulation today as she did in the days after her capture. Americans should know the facts behind the fabrication of her original "story" to the same frenzied degree experienced in the telling of that B.S. story in the first place.
I often don't get what I want.
2 comments:
She is a hero, standing up to the lying war criminals ruining our country like she did. She didn't play along with them and their propaganda, she did not allow herself to be used. In each of the two network stories I saw about the Lynch-Tillman testimony, the role of the media enablers was, of course, completely ignored. Gee, imagine that. Network anchors allowed themselves to be used, but the young woman from West Virginia didn't.
the most frightening aspect of this whole story; is that none of it is suprising.
Wouldn't it be nice if being lied to was more of a surprise and less of a tradition?
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