Legacy MattersUsing the dead to play a political hand or make a political point is not a new tactic. What's particularly disgraceful is when the New York Times selectively quotes from a Marine's last letter, distorting its sense, outraging his family and refusing to correct the record.
The Times quoted from a letter to his girlfriend by 22 year old Jeffrey Star who was killed in Ramadi in April during his third tour of Iraq, a letter which was to be read in the event of his death.
"I kind of predicted this . . . A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
What the Times did not report was the balance of the letter which is how Jeffrey Starr wanted to be remembered.
"I don't regret going, everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me, that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
Whether you are for or against the war in Iraq, we must honor the courage, the willingness to sacrifice one's life so that others may live in freedom and the generosity of heart of Jeffrey Starr who wanted people to know why he died.
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UPDATE: Jeffrey's girlfriend, Emmylyn Anonical, 22 said that going public with the private letter was one of the hardest decisions of her life.
Seeing it used by The Times to misrepresent her boyfriend's beliefs about the war stung deeply, she said.
"The reason I chose to share that letter was the paragraph about why he was doing this, not the part about him expecting to die. It hurt, it really hurt," she said by phone from Seattle.