Pick Up A Gun And Fight, Ferris

The author of the dreck I will comment on shortly should do so, as long as he has seen fit to malign those opposing the war yet again (and I apologize in advance for using a bad word later).

I’ve read awful columns from Philadelphia Inquirer right-wing scold Kevin Ferris for a good while now, and I’ve found him to be disingenuous, propagandistic, and generally quite badly informed, particularly on the matter of the Iraq carnage, on each occasion.

However, I honestly did not find him patently offensive until today.

It bears repeating that there is no attempt at anything approximating journalistic objectivity in his work. None. Hearsay, innuendo, smears, second and third-hand rehashing of long-since-disproven lies are his stock in trade. And I can honestly tell you that, if it weren’t for the prospect of setting off another family argument on the subject, I would surely cancel my subscription to this wretched newspaper over this column.

And by the way, as you read this, please keep in mind that I have found absolutely nothing to indicate that Ferris has ever actually served in the military (this column starts off well, but degenerates quickly).

Making a stand at the Wall

Echoes of the past are heard as vets gather in D.C. to back the troops, oppose war protesters.

Chris Hill visits the Wall every Veterans Day. He follows the path to Panel 4W, Line 36, and stops at the name Curtis R. Smoot. It's the same name on the POW-MIA bracelet Hill has worn for 22 years.

Hill picked up the bracelet at an ROTC recruitment table in high school. He didn't know Smoot, but the bracelet was a poignant reminder of service and sacrifice during Hill's years with the Seventh Infantry Division in the late 1980s.

At Panel 4W, Hill places his hand on the Wall, bows his head, and honors the helicopter crewman who was shot down in 1971, and whose body was never recovered.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is hallowed ground for Hill, made more significant by his first visit right after he enlisted. He was with his dad and uncle, both Vietnam vets. The two older men stood before the Wall on a cold, rainy December afternoon, holding on to each other, weeping.

"That picture's never left my mind," says Hill, now 38.

So when Hill heard about the Wall's being a gathering place for an antiwar protest, he decided he'd be there too - in opposition.

Joining Hill's outrage at what looked like an "occupation" of the Wall were other veterans, military families and their supporters. They worried about vandalism because of the spray-painting of the Capitol steps during a January demonstration.

OK, this is the beginning of the problem here. Does Ferris have any pictures of such an act of vandalism? Any details? Was a report ever filed by Capitol police? Was anyone arrested and accused? Any hearing?

No, of course he doesn’t - Ferris doesn't know about any of that. And this may very well have happened, but there are no details to support the charge. I would like to know this, actually, so I could do what I could to condemn those responsible, since, if this in fact did happen and was perpetrated by anyone protesting the Iraq war, that gives everyone opposing it a bad name (though it really isn’t necessary to ask whether or not that’s what Ferris intended anyway, is it?).

Out of informal talk among local vets groups, and via e-mail and blogs, a national ad hoc group - a Gathering of Eagles (www.gatheringofeagles.org) - and a mission grew:

Show respect for vets of past wars, and the monuments that honor their sacrifices.

Show support for today's troops and their mission.

So basically, this group, according to Ferris, just wants us all to Shut Up And Clap Louder. I see.

No one's free-speech rights would be trampled, but the antiwar protests wouldn't go unanswered.

No, of course free speech rights wouldn’t be trampled. That’s because, with this group trying to silence dissent, free speech wouldn’t exist anyway.

Happy with the turnout and the chance to be heard, the vets and their supporters left last Saturday's gathering feeling the mission was accomplished - even if, at times, it seemed they'd become time travelers.

Jim Kirlin, 60, an investment banker from Medford, was standing with members of Rolling Thunder, the black-leather-jacketed motorcycle club of Vietnam vets. As the protesters marched by on their way to the Pentagon, Kirlin, who saw combat as a Marine rifleman in Vietnam, heard them yell, "Baby killer," "murderer."

"I thought I was back in the '60s," Kirlin said.

More smears. More innuendo. More unsubstantiated charges to go with the alleged graffiti spray painted on the Capitol steps.

This is lazy, disingenuous, utter non-reporting by Ferris, and this is acceptable now, apparently, for the Philadelphia Inquirer, conservative scandal sheet. It is apparently also acceptable to Chris Satullo, the editorial page editor. I suppose it is also acceptable now to Bill Marimow, the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning former staff writer and now managing editor who should resign out of principal over the fact that this kind of copy is apparently acceptable for print, approved of course by Bruce Toll and Brian Tierney of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C.

And by the way, don’t even try to give me that bullshit explanation about how editorial content and news reporting are subject to different standards. Garbage stinks just as badly no matter how you package it.

Another marcher, who looked close to Kirlin's age, came up to the orange snow fence separating the two sides and said: "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I tell my students that."

That stung, but didn't diminish Kirlin's belief in standing up for fellow vets.

See above.

"We have to show the soldiers that there's enough support to go out and win it," he says, otherwise, "the enemy sees [protests] and it increases their resolve to fight, and weakens our efforts."

By the way, for anyone unfamiliar with the regions of Southeastern PA, South Jersey and northern Delaware, I should point out that Medford, NJ is perhaps the biggest gathering of Repug supporters in this area except for Chester County in PA (just sayin').

For Kathy Mizner, 58, Saturday was a "fantastic day." Mizner's father served in World War II. Her husband was in Vietnam. Her son in Iraq. Like Kirlin, she rode the bus for D.C. that Hill had organized. To get to 30th Street Station for the 6 a.m. departure, she left her home in West Deptford at 4. Mizner is usually "scared to death" to drive on ice- and snow-covered roads, but this was important to her. "We've always been true to the flag and our troops," she says. "That's how I was raised."

"To be with true heroes, the Vietnam vets and the kids in uniform still serving, to give them a kiss and to say, 'God bless' . . . money can't buy the feeling it gave me to do that for them," she says.

As a marshal helping to ensure order, Hill heard plenty of angry exchanges, with neither side holding back. He recalls one protester marching by and yelling, "You don't support the troops!"

The vets fired back: "We are the troops!"

But while the verbal back-and-forth provided the extent of the day's drama, the satisfaction came later. As Hill stood among a group of vets from four wars, one in his 80s, another with five Purple Hearts, he realized the common threads they shared: service, sacrifice, support for one another.

Hill recalls one Vietnam Marine telling the group what he said to his nervous wife on joining the gathering: "I'm getting old. This might be the single most important thing I do with my life. I have to go."

"That summed up my view and the view of everyone with whom I came in contact," Hill says.

Sunday, before heading home to Philadelphia, Hill was back at the Wall. No crowds. No chants. He stood with head bowed, hand on Panel 4W, honoring Curtis R. Smoot, and thousands more.

Here is a link to a story of soldiers opposing the Iraq war from CBS News dated about four weeks ago. Quoted in the story is Army specialist Kevin Torres, who served two tours of duty in Iraq but doesn’t believe the sacrifice is worth it anymore. Also quoted is Sgt. Ronn Cantu who feels the same way.

And by the way, Ferris should pay particular attention to this quote from Sgt. Cantu…

"By volunteering we've done more than about 99 percent of the population. And anybody who joined after 9/11 when the country was at a state of war, it's my opinion that nobody has the right to question that soldier's patriotism, nobody," Cantu replies.

Also noteworthy is this excerpt from the following article in The Nation…

Navy Lieut. Cmdr. Mark Dearden of San Diego, for example, enlisted in 1997 and is still pondering the possibility of a lifetime career. "So this was a very difficult decision for me to come to. I don't take this decision lightly," he says. But after two "tough" deployments in Iraq, Dearden says signing (the Appeal For Redress, a petition to withdraw troops from Iraq) was not only the right thing to do but also gave him personal "closure."

"I'm expressing a right of people in the military to contact their elected representatives, and I have done nothing illegal or disrespectful," Dearden adds.

Also, Ferris and his Repug acolytes had better read this column from Steven Thomma of McClatchy Newspapers to find out how badly Dubya’s Excellent Iraq Adventure is playing with their core constituency (the six-word lede of Thomma’s story says it all).

It is the right of The Philadelphia Inquirer to publish accounts of Americans honoring the military service of friends, family, and acquaintances, and indeed it is a good thing that they do so. However, that should not be used as an excuse to conjure up speculative faux journalistic adventures in pseudo-reality, as Ferris has done.

You can tell the Inquirer to stop printing Kevin Ferris’s garbage by clicking here, or you can email Chris Satullo directly here and ask him why Kevin Ferris still has a job.

In the meantime, I will prepare for another argument.