Heros and the way we honor and remember them

Recently I received an e-mail from one of my friends. The e-mail was one of those chain e-mails that usually have some sort of story that is designed to be compelling and to cause the e-mail reader to forward it to many contacts. Normally I am always suspicious of these e-mails simply because whatever message they are selling is usually false, but sounds plausible enough to the casual reader that they will simply forward it without thinking.

The e-mail in question concerned the supposed recent passing of Capt. Ed Freeman (USAF retired) who was awarded the medal of honor for his actions in Vietnam. The e-mail gave a vivid description of the battlefield, of certain death for many young American men, and how many of them lived to come home because of Capt. Freeman medevacing over 70 wounded men, ignoring heavy machine gunfire while flying an unarmed helo. He would even keep flying after sustaining 4 bullet wounds to the leg and arms. Truly his actions were those that embody what we as a country expect in a MOH awardee and selfless acts of heroism like his are what inspire so many who have served this nation before. At the end of this e-mail it takes a few pot shots at the American media complaining about coverage given to Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson while this man died and received so little coverage. That alone should have and to some degree did set off a red flag about this e-mail to me, but being a bit lazy and thinking of the man's heroism I decided to forward it than check the validity.

Of course as soon as I typed in Capt. Freeman's name I found out that he did not pass away recently, but actually passed in August of 2008. I also found that one of the first links to come up was to snopes.com, a website that specializes in debunking these kinds of e-mails. Sure enough I found that while Freeman was a real man and his actions were not embellished in his e-mail, the rest had been circulating for some time with the original version coming out some six months after the man had passed. Frankly reading the snopes report on this e-mail had an effect of really pissing me off. This man was a hero and his actions were of such courage that I can not imagine what it was that kept him flying into that hell, but six months after he died some douchebag who apparently wanted to run his fucking pathetic mealy mouth about the American media used this hero's death for a very selfish purpose. The sad thing is the originator of such an e-mail probably considers himself patriotic and a "real American." At the end of the chain e-mail it stated "shame on you American media for not covering this man's death." Frankly I'm more inclined to want to find the originator of this e-mail so that i can knock his ass out for doing this. Not that I'm a fan of the American media, but like any seller of a product they are catering to what the public wants. If they are reporting on Jackson or Woods it's because Americans are dumb and pathetic enough to value that more. So in the end it should be shame on the American public for not having their priorities straight.

Back to the original point though. folks, this is not the way to honor those who have served, and this sure as shit is no way to honor a man like Capt. Freeman. Too many men have sacrificed their youth, their lives, their sanity, and their health so that we can as a nation continue to live our lives the way our founders intended. Almost everyone of them has served selflessly and given this sacrifice for their own reasons. For them the most that they would want is for their actions to be remembered and for it to serve to inspire those who serve today. To remember such a sacrifice and remember the valor that lives in the heart of those that serve is the best way to honor these men. It serves no purpose and no honor to these men to cheapen their work by using it for something as trivial as politics and the national media.

The only good thing about this e-mail is that the vast majority who have been exposed to it and forwarded it likely did so for the same reasons I did, they were amazed by the Captains actions and forwarded it without waiting to think about it. Their focus was in the right place and that was on furthering the story of the man's actions and in that sense the e-mail was a good thing. In the future though, lets honor these men and leave the politics out of it.

-Zach