On Memorial Day, MSNBC talking head ‘uncomfortable’ calling fallen military ‘heroes’
posted at 3:28 pm on May 28, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
Today is Memorial Day, a day when Americans everywhere take at least a moment out to remember the men and women in uniform who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Perhaps I should say “everywhere but MSNBC.”
Yesterday one of the network’s hosts, Chris Hayes, paused to reflect on this solemn day of remembrance. Unfortunately, he introduced the segment with a puzzling admission of personal ambivalence over whether the word hero should apply to those whose graves we decorate the last Monday in May every year. Hayes elaborated on his concern that doing so is ”rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.”
You can watch the man wrestle with his inner demons here, although you may find it difficult to keep your lunch down. Hayes’s crisis of conscience over the use of a term that any patriotic American would apply with alacrity is a splendid example of the misguided liberal tendency to over-analyze everything. It offers a window onto why liberals think of themselves as intellectually superior to conservatives. It is also a key to why those on the right so often consider those on the left unpatriotic.
NewsBusters’ Mark Finkelstein is correct in noting that “in fairness, Hayes and the other panel members distinguished between their respect for the valor of the individual military members who had given their lives with the worthiness of the various causes in which they fought.” But even that conversation should have been reserved for another day.
In case you’re wondering who Chris Hayes does consider a hero, the NewsBusters piece has an update that reveals that Hayes, during an episode of his show earlier in the month, saluted his parents as “totally amazing, heroic figures” [emphasis added]. What did they do to earn praise that their son might withhold from a fallen member of the military? His father was a community organizer in the manner of Saul Alinksy.
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assclown extraordinaire, sadly our troops have to fight for the rights of morons like this too.
gsherin on May 28, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Another metrosexual egghead kool-aid serving reprobate from MSNBC — go figure.
FlatFoot on May 28, 2012 at 4:06 PM
I’m retired military and a Viet Nam War Vet. My heroes are the ones who didn’t make it back alive. The rest of us just did our job.
Linh_My on May 28, 2012 at 4:45 PM
his comments arise from his own feelings of worthlessness and lack of fulfilling purpose( besides the over arching liberal meddling in the lives of others and inflicting their bs faux-humanitarian views on the little people). it says far more about him and certainly his parents than it does about our heroes- those who keep us safe and secure at the risk of their own lives.
but the left only think malignant racist, totalitarian scum like che guevara are heroes. they have no conception of honor ,duty, and sacrifice for others. they only sacrifice other people, unwilling, not themselves on the altars of their intellectual and political vanities.
mittens on May 28, 2012 at 5:07 PM
I’m not sure I agree with your humble and self-effacing assessment of your “job,” but I certainly admire you for it and thank you for your service.
Howard Portnoy on May 28, 2012 at 5:11 PM
My great uncle came over to this country from Great Britain, went to college for a year, then when WWI broke out, dutifully went back and fought. He got gassed, lost part of a lung and spent a year recuperating. Once healthy, he returned, in the tank division, tough really he should have been out of the game, and was killed 5 weeks before the Armistice. He definitely is a hero — I’ve got a picture of my parents in my bedroom, and his. It’s a daily reminder.
rbj on May 28, 2012 at 5:18 PM
RBJ and Lihn_My. Thank you both for your posts.
I think the MSNBC guys parents should be charged with child abuse. How sick and twisted they must have been to their poor child that be a community organizer is heroic, but a soldier not.
EliTheBean on May 28, 2012 at 6:33 PM
rbj,
Your great uncle is definitely a hero. Thank you for honoring his memory. Far too many forget.
One of my grand uncles was also gassed in WWI. He survived the War, came home and lived to a ripe old age. Last time I saw him, before going to boot camp in 1965, his PTSD was still very apparent. Gas is really nasty.
Linh_My on May 28, 2012 at 6:37 PM
Sometimes just doing your job is enough to make you a better man than the rest of us.
Thank you.
CurtZHP on May 28, 2012 at 7:29 PM
I heard both viewers were pretty upset about that comment.
The Rogue Tomato on May 29, 2012 at 9:49 AM