I decided to start a medical training program for freelancers, only freelancers. They're the ones who are doing most of the combat reporting. They're taking most of the risks. They're absorbing most of the casualties. And they're the most underserved and under-resourced of everyone in the entire news business.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the bravery and sacrifices of freelancers in combat reporting, highlighting their need for better training and resources.
Sebastian Junger's quote underscores the crucial role that freelancers play in combat journalism, often facing significant dangers and risks without adequate support. By advocating for a specialized medical training program for these individuals, Junger acknowledges their sacrifices and the urgent need to equip them with the skills necessary to manage the perils they confront in their reporting work.
In practice
During a conference on journalism safety, this quote can be used to advocate for better support for freelance reporters.
The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another’s lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.
The cause doesn't have to be righteous and battle doesn't have to be winnable; but over and over again throughout history, men have chosen to die in battle with their friends rather than to flee on their own and survive.
When you're scared, you're still hanging on to life. When you're ready to die, you let it go. A sort of emptying out occurs, a giving up on the world that seems oddly familiar even if you've never done it before.
Maybe the ultimate wound is the one that makes you miss the war you got it in.
It's fun to have money, but the more money I get, the less interesting it becomes. If you don't have very much, you have to think about it. If you are starving, you become interested in food. If you are struggling to pay the bills, money becomes tragically important.
In some ways, risk-taking is the ultimate act of self-indulgence , an obscene insult to the preciousness of life. And yet, how can one dismiss something that persists despite every reasonable theory that it shouldn't?
No soldier outlives a thousand chances.
The coward, afraid of the lash, with one hand wipes his eyes and gives with the other. Of what avail are such gifts?
Look at an infantryman's eyes and you can tell how much war he has seen.
We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power... the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Gambling can turn into a dangerous two-way street when you least expect it. Weird things happen suddenly, and your life can go all to pieces.
Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.
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