Pat Tillman, Human

Sorry if this is a repost, but this article made me want to cry...

Pat wasn't the jock/soldier the media portrays him to be...he was a college kid, full of questions, questions I had...all of us had when we where that age....

"Just when we thought we had a pure and simple hero, a millionaire athlete who gave up wealth and fame to become the ideal patriot, to make the ultimate sacrifice, his friends and family complicated everything. They turned Pat Tillman into a human being Monday, showing us what was really lost during that ambush in Afghanistan, insisting that we question every assumption we've made since he died an icon on April 22.

Yes, there were uplifting tales, moments when tears and pride swelled in everyone watching Tillman's memorial service at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. There were jarring moments, too, and they carried the message of the afternoon -- "challenge yourself" -- more powerfully than those laden with conventional inspiration.

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? "

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/04/SPG5K6FD091.DTL&type=printable

It is better to be alive.

Pat Tillman's family knows this, as does the family of every person who dies in war.

Some people may take comfort in thinking of their lost loved one as being with God, Jesus, Allah, or whomever. But it will never take away the sting of knowing that your family member is gone forever.

Apparently there was some kind of omni-post for everything Tillman related, although I have no idea how to find it. It's depressing as hell, Tillman seemed to be a really cool, smart, tolerant guy.

:(