Putting Gil in context

This week, Gil gives a partial quote from Thomas P. Cadmus, national commander of The American Legion. In the course of doing so, he makes another big flub.

Here is the complete quote from the Legion Press Release.

The resolution passed unanimously by 4,000 delegates to the annual event states: “The American Legion fully supports the President of the United States, the United States Congress and the men, women, and leadership of our armed forces as they are engaged in the global war on terrorism.”

"For many of us, the visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We must never let that happen again. I assure you, The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom loving peoples."

"No one respects the right to protest more than one who has fought for it, but we hope that Americans will present their views in correspondence to their elected officials rather than by public media events guaranteed to be picked up and used as tools of encouragement by our enemies. It would be tragic if the freedoms our veterans fought so valiantly to protect would be used against their successors today as they battle terrorists bent on our destruction."

"Let’s not repeat the mistakes of our past. I urge all Americans to rally around our armed forces and remember our fellow Americans who were viciously murdered on Sept. 11, 2001. We must commit ourselves to stand united together to defeat terrorism once and forever."

August 23, 2005

Did you catch it? Here is another classic flub!

Though Cadmus is the American Legion’s national commander, I’m sure he doesn’t speak for all Legion members.

Smart Remark

The resolution passed unanimously by 4,000 delegates to the annual event..."

Remember, delegates are "representative" of the members. (They DO speak for the legion members). And all delegates - yes, "all" - as in 4,000 - passed this resolution that attended this event.

Representatively speaking, all Legion members did support this quote via their delegates.

I can't even fathom that someone would write another flub like this in their column only two weeks after announcing that he didn't realize his own county of Lancaster resides totally within Congressional District 16.

And take notice of the context of the initial quote. What Gil didn't tell us that the quote was about people like Jane Fonda, who later is reported to have given an apology about the incident (although it was generally not well-received - especially not by Vietnam veterans).

How can you leave out an essential part of the quote like that?

Perhaps Gil will one day admit to his own mistakes, much like Jane Fonda. Or perhaps not. You will alway have those who refuse to respect the wishes of our nation's veterans.

Sure, you are free to make the mistake. And you are also free to suffer the consequence of making the mistake. "Freedom" is not as Gil envisions it, with limitless bounds that permits you to say anything you want without criticism. That is not "freedom" at all. That is actually quite a totalitarian vision of "freedom" of his own.