“The Tillman Story,” Amir Bar-Lev’s moving documentary about Pat Tillman, the NFL football player who left his lucrative career in sports to serve in Afghanistan, is a film that everyone should see.  It’s a hard film to see, though, because no one wants to believe–no one should have to know–that their government lies to them. 

Pat Tillman was a patriot, as were many members of his extended family, who through the years had served in the armed forces of our country.  Pat believed that a man should do the right thing, and when his brother joined the Rangers, Pat joined, too.  The brothers were sent to Iraq–a war Pat thought was illegal–and it is there that he was killed by “friendly fire.” 

Although Pat had made it clear in documents prepared ahead of time that if he were killed, in no way was he to be used for army propaganda, the army lied about the circumstances of his death and made him into a war hero who died under enemy fire while saving other soldiers.  It was only because of the dogged persistence of his parents that the truth was revealed.  But neither those at the highest levels (including Rumsfeld and Bush) nor the soldiers who carelessly killed Pat were ever held accountable. 

The film tells the awful truth, a truth that is hard to stomach.  At the same time, we are inspired by the family’s tenacity–in particular that of Pat’s mother–in finding that truth; and we are inspired by a family who believes that, above all else, one should live by the truth and insists that their government do the same.

Citizens want to believe in their leaders.  And our leaders have a sacred obligation, at the very least, to be truthful to those in their care and keeping.  When citizens are lied to–as we have been so very often–we develop a dark cynicism and are thrown back on individual concerns, unable to trust in the body politic.  People call for “less government.”  But what we need is not less government–we need government that is ethical, and we need public servants who, like Pat Tillman, are willing to put the country’s needs ahead of their own.