Republican Presidential Candidate Andy Martin, the only presidential candidate with extensive overseas experience, remembers combat photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros and places their deaths in perspective.
On the cusp of Easter Andy Martin stops to remember two combat photographers who were killed in
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Republican Presidential Candidate Andy Martin remembers the brave combat photographers who perished in Libya
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Holy Saturday is actually a challenging day for Christians. Good Friday memorializes a death and burial. My experiences in life teach me funerals are relatively straightforward to bear. It’s the day after that is shattering. So the disciples were probably weeping, drinking wine, and deeply depressed on Holy Saturday. After all no one knew that Jesus would be rising on Easter morn. Saturday was a sad, sodden day.
In the Episcopal Church we do have a “Great Vigil” on Saturday, but no “Midnight Mass” (Episcopalians have “services,” not “masses”). Episcopalians also have the discipline to wait until Easter morning to celebrate.
And so Holy Saturday found me in a dive bar with young friends that were playing music and having a good time. The joint was noisy and stuffy. In the midst of that alienating confusion my mind drifted back to the deaths of the two combat photographers who were killed in
There is a tendency today to call men and women who risk their lives in combat “photojournalists.” “Photojournalist” is an anodyne term and I don’t like it one bit. Call them what they are: combat photographers. They are risking their lives and being shot at in combat to bring us the face of war.
There have been a lot of memories and flashbacks for me this month. This year is a tough one for memories.
In
Later, Sean and Dana got on motorbikes and drove along Highway 4 into
A year later Highway 4 almost swallowed my life as well. I know that road. You never forget a narrow escape.
After reading about Sean’s mother and how she could not recover from the loss of her son, I was saddened by the capture of four New York Times reporters in
Earlier this year I was reminded of the death of Henri Huet. Henri was the bravest, and maybe the craziest, combat photographer I ever met (link below). If there was a firefight, Henri would get in the middle to get angle shots of the combatants. He died in a chopper crash following a route I loved to fly. On that terrible day, they got hit.
In war, you lose perspective. You jump out of helicopters into rice paddies, or dangle off helicopters, or take off down a road without knowing who is in control. I had that experience in
And so I can understand how Hetherington and Hondros felt on the day they were killed. There were risks to be taken, and they took them.
There is nothing more dangerous than urban warfare. When people are fighting across streets, and snipers are firing from building to building, anything can happen. Tragically it did for two brave men last week. (Two other colleagues were wounded. In the case of the New York Times reporters, their driver may have been killed by Ghaddaffi forces.)
I saw Hetherington’s film “Restrepo,” and wrote a review for my readers (see link below). Tim and Sebastian Junger spent over a year shooting tape and being shot at along with the solders that were holding a small post in
Republicans today (one of whom I have criticized for her ignorance) like to say we “don’t know” who the Libyan rebels are. Hetherington and Hondros were there, photographing the rebels in action, risking their lives to tell the story of men fighting to rid their nation of Mohammar Ghaddaffi. Senator John McCain should also to be commended for going to
War is always a dangerous place to be. Urban warfare is even more treacherous. I count myself lucky to have escaped with nary a scratch. I spent a lot of 2003 living in
Hetherington and Hondros will never grow old. They will be forever enshrined in our memories as young and vigorous, fearless searchers for the truth. Their families and loved ones can never replace them, and we can never repay them for the bravery they exhibited in documenting the horrors of war.
As the music got louder in that Lower East Side dive bar Saturday night, I slowly slipped off to the side and sat alone, thinking about the Easter morrow, and the loss of two brave men last week.
I don’t know if Tim and Chris were at all religious. But on Sunday morning I will remember and pray for them. May they rest in peace with God’s eternal grace. Truly, they have now seen the end of wear.
For the rest of us? A prayer for a joyous Easter and Happy Passover.
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LINKS TO THIS STORY (cut and paste the entire link below and not just the underlined portion):
http://www.pbpulse.com/movies/2011/04/08/
tragic-tempestuous-life-of-palm-beach-s-
forgotten-star-lili-damita/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/world/
africa/08journalists.html?_r=1&scp=14&sq=shadid&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/
africa/21photographers.html?scp=4&sq=hondros&st=cse
http://contrariancommentary.blogspot.com/search?q=Restrepo
Andy Martin’s YouTube channel (a partial archive of birth certificate information):
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ABOUT ANDY:
Andy is the Executive Editor and publisher of the “Internet Powerhouse,” www.ContrarianCommentary.com. He comments on regional, national and world events with more than four decades of investigative and analytical experience.
He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).
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© Copyright by Andy Martin 2011 – All Rights Reserved
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