Honor black 'shero' equally

USA TODAY ^ | 9/22/2003 | DeWayne Wickham

[presidio9]

Shoshana Johnson deserves a lot more attention than she is getting. Three days ago, Johnson, an Army specialist who was shot in both legs during the firefight in Iraq that made another female soldier in her unit famous, was honored in Chicago by the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

[BenLurkin]

"Johnson's story shouldn't be relegated to the backstage of this nation's historical consciousness as just another Black History Month tale. Instead, it should be part of the mainstream account of this war that is taught to our schoolchildren."

Ping

[Bikers4Bush]

The author supposedly doesn't begrudge Lynch the attention but then goes on to do just that.

And he fails to say why Shoshana should garner any more attention than the rest of the people who were rescued with her.

[TomServo]

Ping!

[per loin]

Is DeWayne too dumb to know that pretty girls get more attention than those who are not?

[cyborg]

A better idea would have been a compedium (edited book) of all the POWs experiences. I think Shoshana Johnson does have a story to tell. So does the family of Lori. Why is the media ignoring them? I think he's right to ask that. BUT I think he's overstating her case.

A collection of stories would have avoided this. Even if Shoshana wasn't black, I'd still wonder why Jessica Lynch was singled out. There is another thread 2,000 posts long devoted to this issue so people do want to know.

[Bikers4Bush]

Lynch was singled out because she was separated fom the rest of her unit following capture and held longer than the rest.

In addition, the circumstances that led to her rescue are more hollywood than how the others were found.

That's the long and short of it.

[TADSLOS]

Here we go...Jesse has found his 21st Century Rosa Parks.

[cyborg]

I would buy Lynch's book if it is published. I would agree with you that's why she is being singled out. I also would not dismiss the 'cuteness' factor either. I don't think she was being singled out for POW greatness because she was white. The author of this thinly veiled hit piece is wrong. I think it was a cute little 19 year old black girl, they would have went equally nuts. Shoshana Johnson doesn't have a 'pretty face' and she's old by Hollywood standards.

This man has a chip on his shoulder.

[ClearCase_guy]

You don't hear the word shero very much. Also the word sheroism is often totally absent from Herstory books. I wonder why?

Oh yeah, it's because these stupid words don't exist

[joesnuffy]

If PFC Lynch had been a 24 yr old white boy
I dont think there would have been such a dramatic rescue or any big celebration
no a Bronze star with combat V award?

[wku man]

Sorry to disagree, dude, but Lynch was rescued before the other seven POWs from the 507th. Her rescue happened so soon after her capture, most of America hadn't even heard of her yet, while the pics and video of the other seven had long since been aired on TV screens worldwide.

Also, a better screenplay could be written about the rescue of the other seven, because the Iraqis were retreating in confusion, the Marines hot on their heel, when the seven were released by their captors. The battle sequences alone would get Joe and Jane Sixpack's attention.

OTOH, Lynch's rescue involved no enemy resistance, though the Special Ops guys had no idea at the time that the Iraqis had abandoned the hospital the day before. The entire mystique of the Lynch story is based on the lies the Army concocted about her, and spread by the mainstream media.

IMHO, the best thing to do, if a movie must be made at all, is to tell the story of all the members of the 507th, those captured, those killed, and those who were responsible for a bunch of REMFs getting lost in an enemy occupied area. Of course, the truth isn't nearly as entertaining as spin, is it?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Lynch was singled out because she was separated fom the rest of her unit following capture and held longer than the rest.

I hate to nitpick, but I have just a quick question - if they were all captured on the same day, and Lynch was rescued on April 1st, with the rest rescued on April 13th, how could Lynch have been held longer than the rest?

Thanks in advance :0)

[wku man]

Right...I was taught heroine was the female form of the word hero. Of course, that was back before the feminazis decided to remove all sex distinction from the English language. With the word "shero", are they reversing course? What a bunch of silly chickies! Those feminazis are sooooo cute.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[cyborg]

Or a 24 year old black man either... such acts of heroism and POW bravery are expected of MEN. I am against women in combat because it's been done already in Israel and failed miserably. GI Jane was a nice movie but very unrealistic. Plus it is enlisted women who pay for the career climbing antics of commissioned women.

[Bikers4Bush]

I could have sworn she was rescued after the others and that the bodies they found buried at that hospital accounted for all the dead or captured but I could be wrong.

[cyborg]

You OBVIOUSLY were not listening to Rush during the ninties...LOL

seminary=oviary
women=womyn

I don't remember all the good ones but Who Stole Feminism? has some great ones. 'shero' is a a flamer, drag queen term from the Ninties it's sickening. If anything, it's heroine. :sigh:

[mhking]

Apparently, racism caused a lot of people to shy away from celebrating these stories about heroic black women.

Oh, please. Wickham and the other whiners have not talked about the positive roles of those women in history. They've been too busy trying to beat everyone over the head with stories of how "eeeeeevil" the GOP and the Administration is.

I've got no problem with telling those women's stories - along with all the other heroes of American conflicts, past and present. Of course, that doesn't fit into the poverty pimps' agendas...

---

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[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Shoshana Johnson deserves a lot more attention than she is getting.

. . . the attention she is getting pales in comparison to that heaped upon . . . a white Army private who, along with Johnson, was a member of a 507th Maintenance Company convoy that came under attack on March 23 while moving through the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

Hegemony of the Handsome: American politics should be uglier.
Opinion Journal ^ | 03/20/2002 | MICHAEL MEDVED

We've become so used to good-looking candidates that campaigns of 50 years ago seem quaint. In 1952 and 1956, Dwight Eisenhower faced Adlai Stevenson--pitting two bald, aging, ordinary-looking guys against one another. It's hard to imagine those two rumpled faces and high-foreheads--no matter how well-qualified--winning nominations in the 21st century.

The election of 1960 stands out as the point when star power first assumed its commanding role in the television age. When John F. Kennedy faced the gloomy, jowly Richard Nixon, the voters who listened on the radio told pollsters by a decisive margin that Nixon won the encounter. That substantive victory seemed irrelevant, however, because of the overwhelmingly positive impression made by Kennedy's noble TV appearance. That image continues to overwhelm the public years after JFK's death: Respondents to current surveys always list Kennedy as one of our three greatest presidents. Even his admirers acknowledge the inflated nature of his reputation, given the brevity of his tragically-terminated presidency.

To understand the response of journalism to Jessica Lynch in particular you need only ask yourself one question:

If pictures of all POWs and other casualties of Operation Iraqi Freedom were posted side-by-side, which one would win a "Miss America" contest?

Like the man said, "Whoever said life was fair?"

[wku man]

Being the self-appointed lightning rod I am, I like to use the "old" words...heroine, stewardess, waitress, etc...just to see people's reactions. I'm not a chauvanist or anything, but I'm not one to kneel at the altar of Political Correctness, either. This changing the language crap smacks of Orwell, and I'll have no part of that, thank you very much.

Oh, and by the way...DITTOS!

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!