U.S. deserter gets mixed reviews back home

[Minstrel Boy]

U.S. deserter gets mixed reviews back home
Town's tourism based on patriotism, GRAEME SMITH writes

By GRAEME SMITH
Saturday, December 11, 2004
The Globe and Mail

RAPID CITY, S.D. -- The United States wants to bring Jeremy Hinzman home, but many people in his hometown aren't eager to welcome back the former U.S. soldier who seeks refugee status in Canada.

The case of Mr. Hinzman made big news this week, as people around the world pondered the questions raised by a soldier, turned down for conscientious objector status, who refused to participate in what he calls a war crime in Iraq.

But in coffee shops and street corners in Rapid City, South Dakota, they're asking different questions, such as: Why doesn't that scrawny deserter get what he deserves? Isn't Canada afraid of welcoming a flood of AWOL Americans? And: Remember the time he dressed up like a woman?

"We'd like to give you a whole lot more freaks like him," said resident Jack Jensen. "That guy is not a refugee; he's a loon." When news broke about the 26-year-old's desertion, editors at the Rapid City Journal assigned reporter and columnist Bill Harlan to research the young man whose grandmother raised him in a house downtown.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041211/DAKOTA11/TPNational/TopStories

There are some decent, empathetic remarks, too.


http://www.jeremyhinzman.net/

[Coventina]

1. HEY JACK JENSEN: WHY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU IN IRAQ?

Get your ass to a recruiter immediately or SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!
FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING HYPOCRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on edit: Hey Jack, I hear they need help shooting dogs and cats in Fallujah, it sounds like something right up your alley you useless waste of oxygen!!!!!

[Deja Q]

2. I second that! If Jackie is for the war, he can take off the sticker and

go there for real.

[YDogg]

3. What does dressing up like a woman ...

... have to do with anything?

[2cents]

4. They don't like deserters...

...but they overwhelmingly voted for a deserter over a combat vet. :silly:

[genieroze]

5. Hey Jackoff Jensen, you go pussy. eom

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. South Dakota is crap!!!!

Look how they voted!!!

:grr:

[genieroze]

7. Morons. eom