UMass Student Apologizes To Tillman Family For Column

[Freddie Stubbs]

Man Admits Article Was 'Insensitive'

POSTED: 10:39 p.m. EDT April 29, 2004
UPDATED: 11:02 p.m. EDT April 29, 2004

AMHERST, Mass. -- A University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduate student is apologizing to Pat Tillman's family.

Rene Gonzalez had written a column for the campus paper saying the football player-turned-soldier who died in combat in Afghanistan wasn't a hero -- but a "G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him."

Gonzalez said in an e-mail to a Boston TV station that he was trying to say Tillman's celebrity had factored into his being labeled a hero.

He admits he tried to prove his point in an "insensitive way" and that the article wasn't worth publishing.

more: http://www.nbc10.com/news/3252841/detail.html

[sniffa]

1. the 13 coLLege repubLicans at umass

musta reaLLy put the pressure on him.

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. Plus the university President

UMass president criticizes student's column on felled soldier

By ADAM GORLICK

Associated Press Writer

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) - A University of Massachusetts graduate student who wrote a campus newspaper column saying former NFL player Pat Tillman was not a hero for being killed while fighting in Afghanistan was sharply criticized Thursday by the school's president.

UMass president Jack Wilson issued a statement saying Rene Gonzalez' comments in The Daily Collegian "are a disgusting, arrogant and intellectually immature attack on a human being who died in service to his country."

more: http://www.projo.com/ap/ma/1083284556.htm

[sniffa]

7. wiLLiam buLger never wouLd have Let this happen

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Bulger certainly was a man of inegrity

I wonder why he isns't President anymore. :shrug:

[sniffa]

12. .

there once was a man named mitt
who became govnuh and then threw a fit
about triviaL matters
this carpet bagger
has gay marriage as his Latest big snit

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. why is this a story at all

it's one kid in a college paper. Who gives a crap what he thinks???

Sometimes I just don't get why some stories become stories.

[Tiberius]

5. this was pushed by the right wing

to become a story. That way they can get all offended, all worked up, show how mainstream liberals "really" think, how "commie" the universities are, etc. etc. etc.

[sniffa]

6. this was my schooL

and my paper - they aLLow anyone to write an op/ed piece. there have been some ridicuLous pieces in the coLLegian.

[Bill McBlueState]

9. you're at UMass?

me too.

Yeah, the Collegian usually comes across like it was written by Podunk High's journalism club.

The biggest screw-up I remember was when they claimed Kennedy won the 1960 election in a landslide. But the factual errors are really a minor part of a long series of sketchy decisions re layout and content, and spelling mistakes.

They really do seem to let just anyone walk into the office and write a column. I'm not sure they employ *any* regular columnists.

[sniffa]

10. i graduated in 2000

weLL faLL of 99 - waLked in 2000.

yeah, there's no coLumnists empLoyed there. they have reguLar writers, but they're just students. if you're a journaLism major, i beLieve you're required to write for the paper - i think that's the cLosest to an "empLoyed coLumnist".

do you get fooLed by the apriL 1 edition every year? that used to get me every time.

[DS1]

4. I think if nothing else he's having trouble separating Afgh from Iraq

[theboss]

11. It was such a badly written column

It's silly that a column in a college paper is getting this much attention.

But if I had been editor, I would have refused the column for being so poorly written. There is a point to be made about Tillman, but this was just a string of insults.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Makes you wonder about the quality of education today

This guy is supposedly a doctoral student.

[zbdent]

14. I agree the writer was an idiot for hitting "send" on that one.

(or however it left his desk and made it to the paper).

I think that his opinion could have been expressed in a better way, saying that Tillman volunteered for the position after giving up the contract, and died like any other good soldier, but it only became a bigger story because of his celebrity status.

This, of course, is being held up as "THIS IS HOW THE LIEBERALS THINK! THIS IS WHAT THEY THINK OF OUR MEN IN UNIFORM!"

[zbdent]

15. I think that we should be applauding Tillman for having more balls than

the current Resident-in-thief, especially for doing the unRepublican thing of giving up a multi-million dollar contract for fighting for what you believe in.

[wtmusic]

16. Tillman was a violent man

he entered college just off probation for nearly beating a man to death.

[treepig]

17. shhhhhhhhhh !!

or the patriot police will get you

[The Blue Knight]

18. And you've never made a fucking mistake?

[Misinformed01]

19. Not that kind, no. I have not.

Beating up someone is not a "fucking mistake."

[bloom]

20. I am not surprised.

Why do people deny the violence of soldiers?

It isn't allowed to be equated with non-military violence.

I don't see that much difference. Most soldiers probably have to be artificially worked up to kill people - others want to anyway.

It is amazing how much differently two different acts of killing can be treated by society.



edit - spelling

[rinsd]

23. Do you have a link for that?

I went to google and smoking gun and was unable to find anything.

[treepig]

25. here you go

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/magazine/04/23/tillman.flashback /

"If there was trouble, you looked for Pat first," says Beard. "Usually it wasn't serious." One time it was. In the fall of Pat's senior year, he went to the aid of a friend in a fight outside a pizza parlor and, in Pat's words, "beat the s---" out of his friend's assailant, who was in his early 20s. Several weeks after the incident Pat was arrested and charged as a juvenile (he was 17) with felony assault. Before the case was resolved, he accepted a scholarship to Arizona State (Brigham Young and San Jose State were the other schools that offered) but desperately feared it would be revoked. Pat quietly pleaded guilty to the charge. In the summer of '94 he served 30 days in a juvenile detention facility, and his conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor upon his release.

Tillman's incarceration ended two weeks before his first college football practice. Arizona State never learned of his trouble with the law.

[rinsd]

26. Based on that description of the events....

Helping a friend in a fight is a lot different than the impression you left.

But I suspect you wanted it that way.

[treepig]

27. did you read the same article as i did?

this guy engaged in a pattern of violent behavior.

it sounded like he had a bunch of asshole friends who routinely made a habit of pissing people off, then when trouble came, they turned to our hero, mr. tillman to be a savior (calling mel gibson, a movie opportunity awaits - "the passion of the tillman"). in any event,the incidents apparently "usually" ended without serious harm (or legal intervention). at least one time, the incident cited in the article, had a different outcome.

[rinsd]

Based on your hostlity displayed towards him...

I bet you've had your own share of "incidents".

[smb]

21. What A Maroon

Rene Gonzalez had written a column for the campus paper saying the football player-turned-soldier who died in combat in Afghanistan wasn't a hero -- but a "G.I. Joe guy who got what was coming to him."

Thank you so much for providing such a perfect "left-wing Democrats spit on our soldiers" example to be trotted out ad infinitum. :eyes:

[bobbyboucher]

22. Another example of the "shut up or Rush will use you"

coward sheep mentality.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skittles]

28. WTF

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

29. Case in point...

Right wing morons will use the incident to smear Democrats -- often by posing as "liberals" who hate the military.

Remember something: Pat Tillman was "working" in Afghanistand for about $24,000 per year. Nobody else in Tillman's outfit had just come off a multi-million dollar NFL contract. They're middle class kids who serve their country without the incentive of stock options or no-bid contracts.

It's only because of massive propaganda and the ramblings of a few moronic graduate students, that anybody in the military votes Republican at all.