Posted on 06/17/2004 6:29:52 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
In April, one week after the former professional football player died in combat, The Daily Collegian, at the University of Massachussetts at Amherst published a graduate student's opinion article under the headline "Pat Tillman is not a hero: He got what was coming to him."
By the time the smoke cleared, the paper's web site had crashed under the crush of angry e-mail messages, UMass' president was demanding an apology to Cpl. Tillman's family, and the author Rene Gonzalez - well known on campus for his political views - was receiving death threats.
Cpl. Tillman had been lauded for walking away last year from a $3.6M contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army Rangers. He was killed in Afghanistan in an apparent "friendly fire" incident, and a national outpouring of grief ensued.
"The column itself was vile and poorly time," says Madaleine Blais, a UMass journalism professor. "It was inappropriate. Even to the most liberal person it seemed thoughless."
The day after the column ran, Jack M. Wilson, president of the state-university system, posted an angry response on the UMass Web site, calling the column "disgusting, arrogant, and intellectually immature."
In the face of death threats, Mr. Gonzalez asked the newspaper's editors to remove the column from its web site. They refused. According to Matt Reid, an editor who wrote a counterpoint column to the Gonzalez essay, Mr. Gonzalez then left for Puerto Rico. He could not be reached for comment.
Although acknowledgin that the column upset her, Ms. Blais defends Mr. Gonzalez's right to his opinion. "There is the First Ammendment for the best cases and the worst of cases," she says.
UMass student hiding after death threats (wrote article about Pat Tillman)UMass Student Apologizes To Tillman Family For Column Man Admits Article Was 'Insensitive'
"Mr. Gonzalez then left for Puerto Rico. He could not be reached for comment."
That's the best news I heard all week, one less ingrate to listen to.
...odd that a writer for the 'Chronicle Of Higher Education' (Isolde Raftery) has such a problem with spelling...
Good he's gone, now keep him out. We don't need any more ungrateful scumbags then we already have.
Now THAT'S saying something. Good riddance, scumbag. Who's the pendejo now?
Awwww...whatsa matter? Did the heat get a little too much for ya there in the kitchen, Renee?
Ha ha, ya f'in coward.
One good thing about this war, its shaken a lot of nuts out of the tree.
Unless, of course, you are on a campus of "higher learning" and then only left-wing speech will be allowed to be heard...
Just where do people, Left and Right and otherwise, get the idea that the "Right to Free Speech" means that one can print, say or do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, without fear of retribution for those actions? "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. "
The first amendment merely protects you from action by the GOVERNMENT, not by your fellowman...........
Actually that was me - I can't blame Isolde for that one. I had to transcribe this one from hard copy. I'm series! A moose bit my sister while I was typing.
The First Amendment doesn't guarantee you a forum in a newspaper.
In the face of DEATH, Pat Tillman went were he was needed.
Free speech is a right. However, it also carries consequences.
...and in the face of THREAT OF DEATH, Mr. Gonzales boldly crawled back to Puerto Rico.
Give his scholarship to someone based on academic merit rather than sex, race or sexual orientation....
Naw...that'll never happen....tax payers money could never be that well spent....
Too bad the mods pulled the original article off Free Republic. As a matter of fact, they pulled the story several times, including one posted by me, before finally allowing it to be posted on FR.
I think the moderators only allowed it to be posted because the reaction against the author became such big news that AP/ABC etc. started writing follow up stories and our mods figured it was getting too big to contain.
...oops, sorry. i would never raise such an issue had i known a fellow freeper did it...
np - I laughed when I saw it : )
His First Amendment rights are to write what he wants - My first amendment rights are to respond with .... errr ... an appropriate response. A bloody nose wouldn't be too extreme for this 'kerry'.
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