[appalachian_dweller]

>> Rene Gonzalez and others like him hate Pat Tillman because Pat Tillman is the man they can never allow themselves to be: a man who is willing to hang it all on the line <<

That's how I see it.

[marron]

Very well said.

[Esther Ruth]

"He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

"Let my heart break for the things that break the heart of God."

"Some people want to live within the sound of the church bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell." C T Studd

[GOP_1900AD]

I grew up in the same neck of the woods as Pat (albeit I am about 10 years older than he...). My observation in high school was that the fags, braniacs, burnouts, Commies, dykes and other outcasts hated the jocks. Yesterdays outcasts became today's Renes, and yesterdays jocks became today's Pats. All I can say is, I guess I have to label myself a jock! ;)

[jmaroneps37]

Look the guy hates real men because he is jealous of them. Maybe it's because he has a woman's name.

[King Prout]

Pat Tillman is also the type of man who makes Rene Gonzalez feel insignificant

BINGO!

And as with Pat Tillman, so too with all dedicated servicemen (including women).

There, in a nutshell, is the kernel of ugliness, that soft stinking nugget of biowaste, which - hiding behind the layered facades of "alternative patriotism" and "pacifism" - lies at the heart and forms the core of ALL of the anti-Bush/anti-war/anti-military posturing with which we are all too familiar.

The little dears cannot stand to be so badly shown up for the mediocre wastes of air and space they assuredly are.

[King Prout]

We will all meet our end someday. Pat Tillman drew his last breath at a young age, but by his actions and accomplishments one could argue that he had already lived several lifetimes. Gonzalez and all his cohorts may live well into their eighties, past the mid-point of this century, and they will be witness to many struggles and changes that will take place under their generational watch. Decades from now, as they lay dying, will they feel satisfaction in what they did, what they accomplished, or will they still hold the same anger and resentment toward their phantoms? Will they be satisfied with themselves?

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
-Shakespeare

'ware, ye happy few, and welcome Tillman and his band of brothers to your bosom.

oh, Rene? Yes, you... and your compadres in moral squalor and cowardice, those assorted vile pukes, scutlings, useful idiots? I shall not wait for your epiphany to hold your manhood cheep - it is, and may that truth scald your silly souls without let or mercy from now until the stroke of doom.

[Billthedrill]

Pat Tillman is also the type of man who makes Rene Gonzalez feel insignificant. While Rene spends his life battling his pretend enemies and fooling himself into thinking he is saving the world, Tillman’s legacy will always haunt him.

I doubt it. Gonzalez spends all of his intellectual energy weaving a fantasy world that constitutes a defense against precisely that sort of self-knowledge. If he does not denigrate Tillman that defense fails. But yes, somewhere deep down he knows it.

[small voice in the wilderness]

There is nothing on this earth that can make a man feel more inadequate than facing a man of honor. No shrill, angry, bitter, vengeful, harping, complaining, vexxing woman can do as much to make another man feel small as the act of a brave man. Pat Tillman was Rene Gonzales' mirror. Gonzales had to turn away, and attempt to break the mirror. It was too painful to see his truth.