Amid the Michael Jackson Frenzy, Soldiers’ Sacrifice Ignored

While the world is wrapped around the axle over the death of Michael Jackson, a world away, Soldiers are making the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. The MSM is, as usual, focused on the sensational.

Army Lt. Brian Bradshaw died in service of his country and the public weeps for a pop star, instead.

……Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afganistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Bradshaw, of Steilacoom, Wash., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was one of at least 13 U.S. soldiers to die in Afghanistan since Jackson’s death on June 25.

Bradshaw’s mother, Mary….saying the nonstop coverage of Jackson’s death has become “totally ridiculous” and laughable.

“I can watch the news many nights and there’s no mention of what’s going on in Afghanistan or Iraq and there’s boys dying over there,” Bradshaw told FOXNews.com. “Oh God, I can’t talk.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,530361,00.html

Lt. Bradshaw’s aunt wrote the following letter to the Washington Post:

A Life of Worth, Overlooked
Sunday, July 5, 2009

My nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an explosive device in Afghanistan on June 25, the same day that Michael Jackson died. Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media. Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other Soldiers who died that week? There were several of them, and our family crossed paths with the family of another fallen Soldier at Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies come “home.” Only the media in Brian’s hometown and where he was stationed before his deployment covered his death.

I remember Brian as a toddler wandering around in cowboy boots and hat, not seeing the need for any other clothing. He grew into a thoroughly decent person with a wry sense of humor. He loved wolves and history. Most Christmases, I gave him a biography or some analysis of the Civil War. He read such things for pleasure.

He had old-fashioned values and believed that military service was patriotic and that actions counted more than talk. He wasn’t much for talking, although he could communicate volumes with a raised eyebrow.

He was a search-and-rescue volunteer, an altar boy, a camp counselor. He carried the hopes and dreams of his parents willingly on his shoulders. What more than that did Michael Jackson do or represent that earned him memorial “shrines,” while this Soldier’s death goes unheralded?

It makes me want to scream.

MARTHA GILLIS

Springfield

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070402024.html

My deep condolences to the mother and aunt, but they must understand that the leftwing, fickle, idol-obsessed media has its priorities.

Rest easy, Soldier.