I haven't paid much attention to the Pat Tillman situation. The pious invocations of heroism in the media have been met with sarcastic derision from some, while the casual dismissal of his sacrifice by the likes of Ted Rall have provoked cries of moral outrage from those who like their heroes unsullied by humanity. As is usual in such circumstances, both extremes amount to emotional, visceral responses that leave me bored. Neither side puts much thought into it, and neither hagiography nor demonization appeals to me because people are a mixture of saint and sinner and painting with that wide a brush almost always leaves one with a skewed image of reality. In America, hagiography (the making of saints) is an art form. We romanticize and mythologize everyone from George Washington to Michael Jackson (though that last has had his pedestal yanked out from under him recently) to our own parents. We've done it most obviously with the founding fathers, all of whom have been transformed into plaster saints by the visionless hacks of academic history, whose pallette contains only black and white and they aren't even clever enough to mix the two when they set brush to canvas. The reality of those men is, to a person of intelligence, far more interesting than the "I cannot tell a lie" variety. As it turns out - as it always turns out - Pat Tillman is much the same way.
Gwen Knapp has a report on the memorial service held for Tillman yesterday that shows a much more interesting, multidimensional person than the media has presented on either side. To begin with, how about this shocking statement from a funeral:
Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides."Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead.''
What? This didn't happen for God, as well as country? A professional athlete turned soldier, and we're supposed to believe that he'd have no use for piety? Robbed of a cliche, where does that leave us?
We are so accustomed to the pairing of God and country that it just seems like one long word to us now, but Tillman apparently bucked that trend, as he bucked many others. Can you imagine the reaction of those who are so eager to make Tillman into the poster boy for godandcountry patriotism hearing that line? Or how about this tidbit:
His brother-in-law and close friend, Alex Garwood, described how Tillman handled his duties when he became godfather to Garwood's son. He came to the ceremony dressed as a woman. Not as a religious commentary. He was doing a balancing act."We had two godfathers, no godmother,'' Garwood explained. And what NFL player turned Army Ranger wouldn't don drag to make that math work?
A pro football player, the essence of male machismo in this nation, in a dress? You gotta love that.
Ms. Knapp asks, "Who the hell was this guy?"
From the sound of what his friends and family said, he seems like a guy I really would have enjoyed knowing. A fascinating blend of the intellectual and the physical. A guy who could stay up all night talking about the world's religions with you one night, then get up the next morning and play a game of barely controlled physical violence. Call it a contradiction if you want, that's okay. He was human. And for the first time, I find myself actually paying attention to him and caring that he died. Because being human, in the end, is a lot more interesting than being a plastic, one dimensional hero.
There is some rumor that Tillman was an agnostic or athiest. Another factoid that won't sit well with the spinners.
Tillman was a class act all the way. From what I've read, he embodied what I like to think of as not just the best of America, but some of the best of humanity. Insatiably curious about all manner of subjects, focused, honest, blessed with physical prowess, and graced with immense courage. We could use a lot more Pat Tillmans, especially in Washington.
~DS~
He sounds to me like an eccentric. And I like eccentrics. Especially really smart ones. I like them a whole lot better than pious poster children for patriotism.
You wrote: "We romanticize and mythologize everyone.... We've done it most obviously with the founding fathers, all of whom have been transformed into plaster saints by the visionless hacks of academic history, whose pallette contains only black and white and they aren't even clever enough to mix the two when they set brush to canvas. The reality of those men is, to a person of intelligence, far more interesting than the 'I cannot tell a lie" variety.'"
Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've spent, now, 33 years in the business as an academic historian at two ESUs [Enormous State Unversities] and one, in semi-retirment, large regional campus. And I know of NO academic historian in any department I ever worked in who presented Washington as the "I cannot tell a lie" plaster saint. Nor ANY founder for that matter. Anyone who did would have been laughed out of the department. Are there visionless hacks in the business? Sure. But not many and not teaching at the major universities and colleges, or at least not at any I've worked at or where I have colleagues and friends. I bow to your knowledge of science and how it is taught, but as for how American History is taught by historians at universities and has been for a long time, you are woefully in need of instruction yourself.
Now, you want to talk about how history is taught in middle and high schools, we will have an entirely different discussion. [The results of how it is "taught," if that term can be accurately used at all, wash up in my classes semester after semester. They are convinced, many of them, that history is a list of names and dates handed out on a "study guide" to be memorized before the exam, because that's how Coach did it in high school. Of course they hate history and know little of it. I would hate it and know little of it too if it was presented to me that way.
Part of the problem so many entering students who have been poorly educated have when they hit a university history course taught by a historian is that it is NOT names/dates/I-cannot-tell-a-lie pablum. A lot of them have a some trouble dealing with history that involves complexity, nuance, and flat out disagreement among historians. This is understandable, if sad, because it is in most cases their first exposure to it.
On this point --- how academic historians teach American History [though not necessarily on Tillman] --- you are off base.
Perhaps I should have been more specific and not used the term "academic historians". I did not intend to indict the kind of history taught at the college level (at least at the graduate level, I had some undergrad history that was pretty bad), I was referring to the kinds of textbooks you're criticizing as well. Someone had to write them and generally they were written by historians, and those are the people I'm referring to. I'm sure that the vast majority of academic historians at the post-secondary level find that every bit as frustrating as I do.
Thanks for the info on Tillman. That at least presents a genuine human face to the story.I drew some fire a while back, when i critilized his actions. I wish i had known a bit more about him prior.
We'll learn a lot more about Pat Tillman once they make a movie about his life & death (the kind of hook an Afghanistan War movie was aching for).
Among other things, that he quit football because he didn't like playing on Sundays; that Jesus saved his life several times on the battlefield (except for just once...); and that he looked exactly like The Rock.
We'll learn a lot more about Pat Tillman once they make a movie about his life & death (the kind of hook an Afghanistan War movie was aching for).
Among other things, that he quit football because he didn't like playing on Sundays; that Jesus saved his life several times on the battlefield (except for just once...); and that he looked exactly like The Rock.
LMAO. Brilliant.