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everyone will try to help you, some people are ver... the omelet of disease awaits your noontime meal What gives you the right to fuck with our lives: C... in a way he's the one who devised the plan What gives you the right to fuck with our lives: C... is this thing on over the 'ill, beyond 'idden valley, it's-a comin'... What gives you the right to fuck with our lives: C... What gives you the right to fuck with our lives: C... all my friends think they can make it by just bein... Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The morning paper's ink stains my fingers: CCXXVIII:
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The "What Gives You The Right..." series is under new lyrical management.
This evening, I had dinner at the U.S. Embassy with an acquaintance of mine from Fort Leavenworth who'll I'll call Major S. Major S is a tremendously thoughtful person and someone who I'm sure will make an exemplary flag officer if he so desires. Under Petraeus at Leavenworth, his knowledge of and interest in counterinsurgency really found a home. About a year ago, he was assigned to Baghdad; now, I joked, it's clear Petraeus can't live without him. "So, Spencer," he asked me, "what's up with this casualty series on your blog?" I explained that it had frustrated me for a long time to receive DOD casualty announcements in my inbox and not have a space to compile them, and I wanted to add a word of anger about the loss of life as a commentary about the stakes in the war. We've always tried to be candid with each other, and he told me that both the profanity in the lyric offended him, as did his inference that soldiers came across in the lyric -- and, subsequently, my use of it -- as thoughtless, manipulated automatons as well as professionals who made a choice to serve their country. We went back and forth for a bit, as I didn't see it his way. But then he told me that his brother is serving on a difficult combat assignment, and if he saw his brother's name under that headline, he'd be angry and feel that I was manipulating his brother's death. And so I lost all desire to argue the point. The last thing I want is to cause additional pain to a grieving family. I offer my apologies to anyone who's taken offense. Thanks, Major S, for opening my eyes, but the truth is I shouldn't have had to be told that what I was writing is offensive, or even potentially offensive, to have seen that it could could be. I want the series to be a commemoration with a word of protest, not to have political commentary overwhelm the memorial. So, from now on, I'm going to use a different Stars lyric that, I hope, better captures my intention. No. 244-07 IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 05, 2007 Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132 Public/Industry(703) 428-0711 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Gould, 28, of Longmont, Colo., died March 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Gould was assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. For more information in regard to this release the media can contact the Camp Pendleton public affairs office at (760) 725-5044. --Spencer Ackerman
I wouldn't say I was offended by the old title, but I think this is far more fitting. |
