Althouse: "You had a very specific vision for your work and for your life, and that vision included your death."

April 22, 2011

"You had a very specific vision for your work and for your life, and that vision included your death."

"It didn’t have to, but that’s how it turned out. I’m so sorry, Tim. The conversation we could have had about this crazy stunt of yours! Christ, I would have yelled at you, but you know that. Getting mad was how we kept each other safe, how we kept the other from doing something stupid."

14 comments:

Larry J said...: I saw his documentary "Restrepo" a few months ago. It was one of the most powerful things I've ever watched.; 4/22/11, 7:09 PM
Unknown said...: Sounds like he and Ernie Pyle are old friends.; 4/22/11, 7:41 PM
Synova said...: Sigh.

I'm a really terrible person.

I'm right there with everyone who is sorry this man is dead and I admire him and I think that the article linked is sort of wonderful.

But part of me can't help remembering the reaction when journalists or even "journalists" got caught in American cross-fire. Then it wasn't about how these people went knowingly into danger, time and again, it was about how they only reason they'd be shot is if we did it on purpose.; 4/22/11, 8:38 PM
JAL said...: Not sure what to say.

Very powerful writing.

Very special people, these guys.; 4/22/11, 9:44 PM
vbspurs said...: Sebastian Junger wrote in VF:

You had this idea that young men in combat act in ways that emulate images they’ve seen—movies, photographs—of other men in other wars, other battles. You had this idea of a feedback loop between the world of images and the world of men that continually reinforced and altered itself as one war inevitably replaced another in the long tragic grind of human affairs.

A young man rushing to the side of a fallen comrade, and lifting him up by the boots...

A commander yelling, screaming, pleading with his men, all in one long, incomprehensible shout...

The beating of a heart ringing in the ears of a soon-to-be dead soldier...

The courage of the young, the cynicism of the experienced, the selflessness of all...

Yes. This loop of images is as old as human beings have been fighting on battlefields. They'll continue until the last war is played out on this earth.

Cheers,
Victoria; 4/22/11, 11:07 PM
VanderDouchen said...: I'm not joining this again. We've already had this conversation here.

I would like to know how Thouse feels about the following:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/default/article/Wis-Capitol-security-high-despite-end-of-protests-1348640.php

Your Capitol is not free and open anymore. I assume it is thusly, because of terrorists and the need to secure the Capitol, the legislators, the Govna, and their staffs. Yet, elementary school children are now passing through security to view the beauty and wonder of the Madison (Scouts!) architecture.

Has DHS been involved in the discussions of security? Has the SPLC been involved in identifying the northern terrorists? When will it ever end?

WV: gersts:

We'd like to welcome all of our gersts to Madison, but, please pass through the metal detectors ferstest.; 4/23/11, 12:10 AM
bagoh20 said...: A great piece of writing for what it says about risk, and passion, and violence and living a special life and sharing it with like minded special people. We all die, but we don't all live.; 4/23/11, 1:00 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: That part you quoted is, I think, what it's all about. Think about that when we disagree:

That's what we're supposed to do.

It's the reason I always praise you, Ann:

You may not always like it, but you seem to "get" it.; 4/23/11, 1:50 AM
Toad Trend said...: "I don’t know if it was worth dying for—what is?"

When somebody questions like this, whether something is worth dying for, tells me that there is measurable doubt about the undertaking.

I admire this man for the risks he took to tell a story.

But I too have my doubts about whether or not it is worth risking your life to chronicle via pictures a conflict in a part of the world that few can imagine or understand. Sometimes, these things have no explanation, and even more troubling, no resolution.

Maybe he didn't see that he couldn't really impact the situations he seeked, rather, that he became part of them.; 4/23/11, 6:51 AM
paminwi said...: I personally admire those who have the courage to go into places I would never have the courage to go. I try to learn from those people and take it forward with me as I make decisions about those running for office (who of course are just as afraid as I am to go into those places).

From reading Restrepo and then watching the movie you realize there is so much you don't know about what happens in the world we all opine on every day. We need reminders by these special people not to opine so quickly.

Peace to his family.; 4/23/11, 7:10 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Very moving. If it weren't for war, what would journalists do?; 4/23/11, 12:28 PM
Larry J said...: If you get the National Geographic Channel, they're broadcasting "Restrepo" twice Monday evening. It's well worth watching.

"I don’t know if it was worth dying for—what is?"

As Martin Luther King said, "a man who hasn't found something he is willing to die for is not fit to live."; 4/23/11, 5:17 PM
Synova said...: "Worth dying for" is a tricky thing.

If death was assured, what would we chose to die for? That's a different question than how much we are willing to risk death.

(And if death is assured, what we hope to accomplish through it is asked to meet a higher test as well.)

I'm sure that most of us have heard this: It's not about dying for your country but about making the other guy die for his.

Give me liberty, or give me death: Death is the second choice, not the first.

Of course "imagine" nothing to die for and what is left to live for?

It's not, I think, if something is worth the death, but if it is worth the risk. It might be worth the risk. People do risky things all of the time. Some people take more risk than others and they judge if the risk is worth it or not.; 4/23/11, 5:43 PM
MamaM said...: @ John Lynch, Thank you for the link.

This stood out, reminding me of some of the protest behavior:

...but it nevertheless remains a matter of sorrow to me that, with the opportunity for individual participation in the glories of our culture greater than ever before in all our history, the meretricious, the vulgar, and the downright hideous should triumph so easily, should find so eager a reception in the minds of men.; 4/24/11, 1:59 AM