God grant that such a spirit will reside in rich abundance here in America...in all of us.
Such a story should be shouted from the rooftops and drown out all of the nay-sayers and those who are opposed to liberty. This is the price that has been paid though the last two hundred years for all of our liberty. I pray we can always remain worthy of such a price...the best blood of our generation.
My heart and thanks goes out to the Tillman family.
Up to now, in the local Southern California sports scene, we've been hearing a lot about Mike Williams on the University of Southern California, and what tremendous personal hardship he's had to endure with his recent decision to jump to the NFL after his sophmore season at USC.
And now that it appears he will have to sit out a year with the original ruling reversed on appeal, we hear about what a terrible tragedy it is that his marketability may have dropped from $10 million to down around the paltry sum of $2 million. Mike's really hurting over this, and few among us would be able to endure such a burden.
I'll be happy if I never hear another word about this pathetic little POS again. Ever.
It must be because I respected him so much, due to his honor and value system.
Godspeed Pat, I wish that I had known you better.
There is no doubt that Pat Tillman sacrificed an enormous financial figure, and growing celebrity, in order to serve his country and the cause of human liberty. As opposed to so many sports ‘heroes,’ whose credentials for heroism consist of an accurate eye, quick reflexes, unusual strength, abnormal speed or endurance, etc. (all of which are generally handsomely remunerated in dollar figures and public adulation), this patriot walked away from all of that in order to defend liberty … and he gave up his life in the process. I have heard several times on my car radio today that joining the Army was something he had thought about for a long time … he felt he had lived a very comfortable life and in some way he needed to offer something beyond his sports abilities in return.
Gratitude and appreciation (to God and fellow man) is in short supply these days. In my opinion, not because of his prowess in sports, but because he placed his partially God-given gifts in their proper perspective, and sought to give as well as take, Tillman is indeed a true American hero. There aren’t enough such thankful givers these days.
At the same time, so many people are discussing the fact that he walked away from a lucrative $3+ million contract in order to serve his country. While that certainly is an unparalleled monetary sacrifice that not many of us would be willing to make, I can’t help but reflect on the fact that more than seven hundred American military men and women have met their death on Iraqi soil since March 2003, and more than a thousand have fallen in Afghanistan since October 2001. All of them were someone’s son or daughter. Most of them were sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They all leave behind grieving parents, spouses, siblings, and often fatherless/motherless children. Tillman himself leaves behind a young wife of less than two years. Any talk of ‘financial sacrifice’ is dwarfed by the human sacrifice that has been offered by more than seventeen hundred courageous, dedicated Americans, each of whose loss has left a deep, painful, permanent void in the lives of dozens of loved ones, and an indescribable reverence for their selfless valor in the hearts of their countrymen.
In eternal terms, Tillman’s sacrifice was no more, or no less, than that of his seventeen hundred comrades who believed that the defense of liberty (of both their countrymen, and a struggling people half a world away) was worth the ultimate sacrifice – in many ways a uniquely American mindset.
In part, one of the ways we can repay their sacrifice is to not allow those who have no comprehension of sacrifice for liberty/country to dissuade us from staying the course that seventeen hundred of our own were following when they fell.
God bless them all, and strengthen and comfort those they leave behind.
~ joanie