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Lynching Private Lynch November 17, 2003 ~ 5:38 p.m. All right, I�m getting a little goddamn sick and tired of Jessica Lynch. Who else? We all thought it was a heartening story: A female U.S. soldier was in the process of being tortured by her captors when a brave Iraqi broke the news to U.S. forces who were able to rescue her. The whole nation breathed a sigh of relief on behalf of the Lynch family. And it was also great to laud the Iraqi citizen who spared her from torture if not from death�and it was entirely fitting that the U.S. granted him residency rights for saving one of their own. But then, the media does what it always does: It turns a feel-good story into a mine field of celebrity-laden crap. First a book deal; then a contest with Elizabeth Smart (another person I�m sick of) for TV movie bragging rights; and as if this wasn�t enough, Larry Flynt said he had nude pictures of Lynch, but his latest line is that he�s preventing them from being published. Right. And I�m buying a cat tomorrow to keep a caring eye on our domestic rats. Although I am hardly a proponent of nursing racial grievances, former POW Shoshana Johnson can hardly be blamed for her incendiary comment over the Lynch story, �You�ve got some very interesting cultural, almost racial overtones here.� Who can blame Johnson for feeling ignored because she�s not as �all-American,� being black, as the petite, white Lynch is? The only thing I�d advise Johnson is that she should know better than to crave the spotlight cast on Lynch. I can guarantee you that within two years, Jessica Lynch will be a faded memory in the minds of most people. Fame that comes easily will go just as easily. It�s not that Lynch didn�t earn her role in the spotlight. But that was months ago. She had her fame, and so did the Iraqi lawyer who came to her rescue. But, for fuck�s sake, enough is enough already. Then again, with the celebrity-driven American media, in its pandering to the brain drain we call the entertainment industry, nothing is ever enough. � M.E.M.
Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!
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