Recently, the physicist and sufferer from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Motor Neuron Disease, Stephen Hawkings, suggested that man’s priority might be the colonization of other planets outside our solar system, so that the evolutionary gift of the human brain should not be lost forever. He appreciated the challenges of living on Planet Earth; a hit by an errant asteroid, global nuclear annihilation, but insisted the human brain, with its billions of years of evolutionary history, is too precious to be thrown away at the whim of apocalyptic politicians or a deviant lump of solar rock.
Not so the case of Joel Jacobs, as characterized on NBC Nightly News tonight. Joel is a retired soldier who plants redbud trees in place of fallen soldiers in Iraq.
Joel Jacobs is a man worthy of respect. His dedication to fallen comrades, planting a tree in memory of each, could never be considered anything but admirable.
NBC Nightly News, and in particular Brian Williams’ gag-inducing commentary on this man’s lone quest to dignify his fallen comrades, not only was disrespectful, but reeked of the corporate-induced, smarmy, indoctrinal hog-wash designed to stultify an American public into believing dead soldiers somehow lived on as common-or-garden redbud trees.
If the philosophy of NBC and Brian Williams were to be considered credible, then Stephen Hawking’s philosophy might reach culmination more cheaply and easily by sending redbud seeds to colonize other planets, while leaving the human brain to rot where it lies – on the hot and foetid roadsides of Baghdad.
Judge for yourself – this NBC Nightly segment is videoed by scrolling down this page to the link: “A soldier’s duty: tending to the fallen.”
Filed under: Choices
