You can read Sally Jenkins column on Tillman if you want, front page of washingtonpost.com but I found it distasteful that she used Wilfred Owen of all people to talk about the values Tillman stood for. Quite frankly, if you know anything about Owen, you'd know he's the antithesis of everything Tillman stood for.
So I told her so:
And her response:
Hi,
I can't quite tell from your email what it is you think you know, as a reader, or what it is you think my purpose was in writing about Tillman.
The column certainly wasn't about patriotism. It was about selflessness and service in the face of thanklessness and horror. Which Owen wrote about probably better than anyone.
It's pretty simple. Try shrugging off your crushing blanket of intellectualism and read the thing straight on.
Be a dumb ass...Read the Post "straight on"...W has found a newspaper!...screw you guys, I'm going home...have a great weekend everybody..
So I told her so:
Sally,
I think it was fairly disingenuous and probably intellectually incorrect to use Wilfred Owen to write about the themes of patriotism and honor that represented Pat Tillman's life. Here was a guy in Owen who's been an inspiration for subversive and anti-war individuals everywhere, who wrote Dulce Decorum est Pro Patria Mori: The Old Lie no less, and he shows up repeatedly in a column about Pat Tillman? The quote that you used fits your purpose, but in no way is indicative of what Owen was WRITING before he died. Perhaps Owen was a war junkie; there's no sign that Tillman, on the other hand, joined just to kill people.
Everything Tillman believed is everything Owen was against.
Why did you and your editors assume their readership wouldn't know this?
Thanks for your time.
Benjamin
I think it was fairly disingenuous and probably intellectually incorrect to use Wilfred Owen to write about the themes of patriotism and honor that represented Pat Tillman's life. Here was a guy in Owen who's been an inspiration for subversive and anti-war individuals everywhere, who wrote Dulce Decorum est Pro Patria Mori: The Old Lie no less, and he shows up repeatedly in a column about Pat Tillman? The quote that you used fits your purpose, but in no way is indicative of what Owen was WRITING before he died. Perhaps Owen was a war junkie; there's no sign that Tillman, on the other hand, joined just to kill people.
Everything Tillman believed is everything Owen was against.
Why did you and your editors assume their readership wouldn't know this?
Thanks for your time.
Benjamin
Hi,
I can't quite tell from your email what it is you think you know, as a reader, or what it is you think my purpose was in writing about Tillman.
The column certainly wasn't about patriotism. It was about selflessness and service in the face of thanklessness and horror. Which Owen wrote about probably better than anyone.
It's pretty simple. Try shrugging off your crushing blanket of intellectualism and read the thing straight on.
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