Monday, May 17, 2010

Collateral Damage by the Horribly Misused U.S. Armed Forces Comes to the Nation's Capital

Blogger's Note: As a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I have received the magazine Science 51 weeks a year for 41 years. The obituary below is for a woman who edited for Science for practically the whole time. I was particularly shocked by the cause her of death.
__________________________________________________________





In Memoriam

Constance Holden, who has edited this page with her singular wit and style since it was launched 20 years ago, was tragically killed on 12 April in a traffic accident. Tancy, as she was fondly known to her many friends and colleagues, was struck by a military vehicle, part of the security forces for the nuclear summit being held in Washington, D.C., as she left the Science offices on her bycycle.
         Tancy was an accomplished writer and editor for Science for almost 40 years. She covered the social and behavioral sciences, bioethics, and stem-cell research, delving into the genetics of behavior long before it was fashionable. She was a true original--warm, friendly, curious, direct, and always willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. She was also a talented artist and pianist. Her oil paintings grace colleagues' offices and the corridors of the AAAS building. The self-portrait above provides a unique view of a distinctive personality who has left her mark on this magazine. She will be deeply missed.

www.sciencemag.org       SCIENCE       VOL 328       16 April 2010
Post Script: If you've read this far and are moved by this tragedy, please consider checking out the comments below.

2 comments:

Mark E. Smith said...

Most likely the driver and occupants of the military vehicle just laughed when they killed her and said that it served her right for bringing her bicycle to a battlefield.

Anywhere our military happens to be is their battlefield, and, as Josh Stieber explains on the Real News Network, killing civilians, including women and children, is what they're trained for and tasked with.

When science (with a small "s," not the magazine) put itself at the service of the military-industrial complex, it signed its own death warrant.

It is sad to see yet another intelligent person added to the millions killed by the mindless automatons of imperialism.

Constance "Tancy" Holden, R.I.P.

David Griscom said...

Mark,

Thank you for your sensitive framing of this tragic event in terms of the insensitivity now being trained into the U.S. military.

And thanks too for the link to Josh Stieber's expositions, which I advise my readers to check out.

RE "the mindless automatons of imperialism," I watched Avatar the other night. This film should be shown in all the service academies ...but I sure bet it won't be.

Yes, R.I.P. Tancy