Danny Dietz was a second class petty officer and Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan. He earned the Navy Cross, our nation’s second highest military honor – posthumously – for his actions in response to an ambush, laying down covering fire for his team members even as he lay dying from a mortal wound. He fought for his country, died for his friends, came home to a family that laid him to rest.
He grew up in Littleton, Colorado. His family and local congressman raised private funds to place a statue in a park near the neighborhood he grew up in. The city council voted unanimously in favor of the plan. The statue is based on one of the last photographs taken of Petty Officer Dietz in life.
Not everyone is pleased:
(A) group of parents wants the city to recast the statue or place it elsewhere, arguing that the site, near three elementary schools and two parks, is a hub for young children who could find the weapon disturbing.
“While our hearts go out to the family of this brave young man, we have serious concerns regarding the graphic and violent detail the statue portrays,” stated a flier distributed recently in a nearby neighborhood.
“As a community, we cannot allow the many young children in this area to be exposed to a larger than life-size grenade-launching machine gun,” the flier stated.
Certainly, the image of a warrior carrying the weapons of his trade, weapons he used to defend the rights of pampered poodles who are afraid of guns, can be seen as insensitive.
A bad example for the children.
I could go on. And on. Although I’m not sure why I should have to.
Perhaps, for those objecting, this would be a better image?
That’s Maria Dietz, Danny’s widow. With Danny, after he came home. She doesn’t quite understand her neighbors’ objections:
(She) called the references to Columbine “offensive.”
“Danny used his gun to protect innocent lives and fight for this country,” said Mrs. Dietz, who lives in Virginia Beach. “For them to compare that to Columbine is offensive not only to my husband, but to every other citizen who died behind enemy lines.”
She said she hoped that children who pass the memorial would be inspired by his example.
“He’s a role model for any kid in that area, someone who grew up and became a hero with his combat gear, which included his gun,” Mrs. Dietz said.
I’m not quite sure I understand their objections either: These are soft people who for their freedoms depend upon hard men willing to use rifles to defend them. They’d rather not acknowledge any of the facts in that sentence. Instead they choose to believe that their privileges are birthrights, or if not, demand that the soldiers who protect them at least have the good grace to die anonymously.
Here is the text of an email I sent to the City Manager of Littleton this week after reading about this travesty on Blackfive.net:
Dear Mr. Woods,
I am a Columbine High graduate, Class of 1983. Although I don’t live in Colorado any longer, I just learned about the controversy surrounding
the proposed memorial to PO2 Danny Dietz in Littleton. I am frankly appalled at the comments of the parents opposing the location and design of this memorial. To compare the heroic and selfless acts of PO2 Dietz with the cowardly and deranged rampage by Harris and Klebold is the height of perversion, and yet that is precisely what they are doing with
their argument that a statue of an American warrior with a weapon is “insensitive”. I wish they would realize that by opposing this memorial on these grounds, they are granting the Columbine killers exactly what they wanted – immortality. The simple fact is that our service men and women carry weapons in defense of the freedoms we all hold so dear, and
to banish all such depictions because of some imagined connection with the Columbine massacre is too naive to be credible.
Please hold firm on the City’s plan to dedicate the memorial this summer. What happened at Columbine did not diminish my pride in my
Littleton roots, but denying a proper memorial to an authentic local hero certainly would.
This is not the first time in my life I’ve thought the neuterati of this Country to be hardly worth the loss, the sacrifices, and the suffering of we who have worn the cloth of the Nation. But it’s not for them that we do what we do, is it? P.O. Dietz, you fill my soul with pride to have been in the same Naval Service as you. See you in Valhalla. – Former 0331 Bravo 1/5, RVN 1/68-10/69.
I can’t look at his confident face and competent posture without getting tears in my eyes. Mrs. Dietz’s dignified response is perfect. Indeed, we might hope that some of the children who see the statue will be inspired to follow his heroic example.
Wouldn’t that be like asking to have the weapons removed from the statues at The Wall in DC?
I think that it should be the perfect opportunity for local parents to teach their children about Honor, Courage, Commitment and the likes. Not to mention what a weapon is really all about.
Those same ‘protesters’ should start writing letters to the Air Force Academy saying it’s not fair their children are so close to such an air warrior breeding ground. [Trying to be nice to the boy's in blue here]
I think that, to the contrary, such a statue would inspire the youth of today and teach them that there are things to aspire to, that the world is not a safe place and some folks hold the protection of others to a higher calling, that there are in fact things worth fighting for.
It might also help them to realize that their parents are idiots. The sooner a kid can learn that, the sooner he can dispense with the addle-headed milksop feel-good existence they’ve saddled him with. After that, it’s only a hop, step, and a jump into the Real World.
– Max
Part of my family lives in Lone Tree CO. It was once part of Littleton and the Columbine school district. I do believe that one of the reasons that Lone Tree split off from Littleton was to get away from Columbine HS.
These people are scared and, they are scared because the U.S. military has protected them with so little effort on their part. That might not make sense to some but, it does to me.
They are scared of people attacking their children and they are scared of anyone that carrys a gun. They are so scared in fact, that they cannot differentiate between an honorable man and deranged psycho teenagers…
The fact that the USAFA is up the street does not pose a threat to them. They see it as football games and young men and women parading around. They do not take it to the next level… A memorial to a patriotic young man carrying a gun is a threat to them.
I disagree with their viewpoint but, having spent a lot of time there, I understand it. When you are sheltered from the harsh reality of world events and, when you live in very comfortable surroundings, made possible by the Danny Dietz’ of this country, it is very hard to understand what benefit will accrue from a memorial of this type.
I feel sorry for them.
My two cents…
Shame on the people in Littleton who are protesting against this statue. SHAME ON YOU – you should be naming streets and libraries for Petty Officer Dietz! You should be teaching your children that this is the kind of man they should aspire to be.
But on the other hand – Does this not indicate just how good of a job we in the military have done over the years? All of us who for the last 150 years have kept the wolves from the doors of this little town, have kept the reality of a harsh and violent world from their knowledge; shouldn’t we be perversely proud of their ignorance and prejudice… wrong headed as it may be?
Shame on you all who protest on Dielz statue.. DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU AND ALL YOUR LOVE ONES, YOUR CHILDREN YOU ARE TYRING TO PROTECT SLEEP VERY WELL EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AND PEACEFULLY BECAUSE OF MILITARY WATCHING THIS COUNTRY FOR YOU?
Lets go to Arlington with a welder and cut the Garands and carbines off the statues on the Iwo Jima Memorial. Then every town with a Civil War statue can take off the swords and rifles. Let’s just forget them all.
Maybe a nice abstract statue to the values of multi-culturalism would suit them better. And we can take another step toward the end of America.
I wish I could be gentler about how I feel about this and so many other things, but I no longer have it in me.
Build the statue of Petty Officer 2nd Class Dietz. Name streets and public buildings after him. Create postcards with his image. Celebrate his life and sacrifice. Let him be a constant reminder that real Heros are not found on baseball or football teams… They exist in places most Americans cannot pronounce or find on a map. They suffer hardships and dangers that most Americans cannot or will not comprehend. They are the sheepdogs defending the sheep from the wolves that the sheep would rather pretend do not exist. The sheep… content to fill their bellies in their sheltered meadow lives; while the sheepdogs keep their constant vigil. The sheep don’t like the sheepdogs… The sheepdogs have teeth like the wolf… they look much like the wolf… they do violence like the wolf. The sheep are so self absorbed they don’t want to think about the sheepdogs. “Baaaa” We sheepdogs carry tools of the trade. It is the Profession of Arms. We do not combat the wolves with laptops, briefcases and Blackberrys. We never will. Honor this Hero with the tools of his trade in the midst of the sheep. ‘Lest they forget.
What Babs said.
These unfortunates are protesting Columbine after the fact, not PO Dietz. Or more specifically, their subconscious guilt for having been helpless to the fangs of only two child-wolves in their midst. They couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything about it then, and this finger-pointing won’t salve their consciences now.
So blame the honorable sheepdog, who does not hide his teeth. Because the wolves are always there, waiting.
Whether the sheep look up in time to see them or not.
In a word, they’re dispicable. The stench of their pusillanimous words, sting the nostrils of free men. Wherever they gather in public to lobby for their milquetoast worldview, they should be driven from the floor with wet towels. That’s all it would take.
These people are trying to hide from the world – and the world will get them in the end if they continue to try to hide.
Shine a HUGE light on P.O. Dietz – for all to see – as a beacon of hope for generations to come.
How is it that the voices of the few can so consistantly speak for so many of us in this great country? At some point, we have to throw Political Correctness out the door on its A$$ and retake our country. The good Citizens of Colorado must stand up for what is right and not allow the few to dicatate to the many. I say make the statue twice the originally planned size.
I think Colorado needs its own version of Mt. Rushmore. Danny Dietz would seem a fitting start.
Trust me, it’s *hard* to pass by those faces and not wonder, just for a minute or two, if you would at all measure up in their eyes.
– Max
Has anyone called Colorado’s version of social services about these parents? I mean, if their child can become “disturbed” by merely looking at a statue with a gun, what does that say about the type of parenting they are receiving?
I think every town in this country ought to put up a big statue of a fallen hero from every conflict in memory…….
I’d love to see statues of our boys who went to Viet Nam, say, being put up in parks everywhere, it’s long overdue. Perhaps it could be a generational display….
The vast majority of my posts here ask the question, “Where do we find such men?”. The answer in this case is Littleton, Colorado. I cannot “fathom”, if you will pardon the pun from an old shipdriver, why any parent would object to a statue of Danny Dietz. Why any parent would not be proud to tell his children that they could do a lot worse than to aspire to become the Danny Dietz of their generation. I have not openly wept for many years, but the photo of Mrs. Dietz was more than enough to push me over the edge.