Sarah Palin Plagiarized Memorial Day Message
Yesterday the Palin tweeted the following: "VETERANS,not reporters,give freedom of the press.VETS,not politicians,give freedom to vote.VETS,not campus radicals,give freedom to assemble." She did not mention that she'd stolen it from a 1970 poem.
The remarkably similar poem, by former soldier Charles M. Province, is available here and goes as follows:
IT IS THE SOLDIER
It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Does one have to attribute in tweets? We'd say that if you're a politically active public figure with about 160,000 followers it would probably be the decent thing to do. |
