Critical Perspective on Developments in National Security, Intelligence, and Technology
There’s something about these stupid, inconsequential stories that reveal so much about our society’s misplaced values:
An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: “My daddy died this year in Iraq.”
…”We did the essay and that’s what we did to win,” Priscilla Ceballos, the mother, said in an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW. “We did whatever we could do to win.”
She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. Caulfield said the mother has admitted to the deception.
Priscilla Ceballos is saying that she never claimed the essay was true:
“When [contest organizer Robin Caulfield] asked me if this [essay] was true, I told her no,” Ceballos said. “We never said this was a true story. We do essays all the time. My daughter does essays at school all the time. It never did say it had to be true, but [Robin] said, ‘That’s what we expected.’”
I guess it never said the author had to show good taste, judgment, parenting skills, or proper respect for the fallen either. The bottom line via Scared Monkeys:
THEY DO NOT DIE SO THAT 6 YEAR OLDS CAN WIN HANNA MONTANA TICKETS!!!
Exactly.
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Dr. Rebecca Johnson
I could not possibly agree more. I posted on the same thing this morning. Having been the witness to what real grief of a child loosing a parent looks like, this woman disgusts me.
I hope she ends up with a fraud charge – and frankly – they should sentences her to one hour for every solider that HAS died in Iraq – all the hours to be served in grief centers specializing in children.