What a Human Being Should Be

I’ve never been a sports fan, but I became a fan of Pat Tillman after he walked away from a $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the Army as a private–and then never once went on TV to talk about it. Today, he was killed in Afghanistan while serving with the 75th Ranger Regiment. His brother is serving in the same platoon.

Tillman earned his business degree with a 3.84 GPA, had a young wife, and had everything the world could offer. He knew very well that his life was worth preserving, which separated him vastly from his nation’s enemies. Nothing would have been easier after September 11th than for him to let others do the fighting. Pat Tillman he had the sense of perspective and the moral force to offer up his life not to be a martyr or a hero, but simply to preserve life, and to defend the hope that living it could be as beautiful for others as it was for him. I feel broken . . . I grieve for someone I never knew, and feel intense pride that our country still produces people like this. My heart goes out to his family. Godspeed, Sergeant Tillman. My baby son will thank you when he’s old enough to understand what you did for him.