I could have ended up a casualty of a broken family, like so many of the kids around me in inner city Baltimore. But my life was forever changed the year I turned 10. That was the year my dad turned to Jesus.
Party and ideology routinely trump institutional interests and responsibilities. Regular order – the set of rules, norms and traditions designed to ensure a fair and transparent process – was the first casualty. The results: No serious deliberation. No meaningful oversight of the executive. A culture of corruption.
We’ve all but abandoned soaps in our own culture. I lost my beloved ‘Guiding Light’ in 2009, and ‘One Life to Live’ was just the latest casualty to fall beneath the programming axes.
It is often observed that the first casualty of war is truth, but how do you tell the truth without betraying the sacrifice of those who accepted the terms of battle? War is a sacrificial system that creates its own justification.
I’m delighted to be working on ‘Casualty.’ It’s a terrific cast and crew, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.
But unfortunately, in my unrelenting drive to get back on that drum stool, the major casualty in all of it was that I really forgot about me.
Proving yourself in a field where the casualty rate is so notoriously high is an ongoing challenge.
There’s two kinds of rock n’ roll casualty: the one that has huge success and adoration, and then suddenly it stops. Or there’s when you’re in a band: it is all-consuming, so then you have the dream of that, and then the dream’s taken away from you even before it happens.
But unfortunately, in my unrelenting drive to get back on that drum stool, the major casualty in all of it was that I really forgot about me.
Proving yourself in a field where the casualty rate is so notoriously high is an ongoing challenge.
There’s two kinds of rock n’ roll casualty: the one that has huge success and adoration, and then suddenly it stops. Or there’s when you’re in a band: it is all-consuming, so then you have the dream of that, and then the dream’s taken away from you even before it happens.
I have always been 100% regimental and I haven’t done what I should do and sometimes you can be a casualty of your own success.
They say that truth is the first casualty of war. But there is another casualty as well: trust. As conflict escalates, trust between people and political leaders crumbles away as surely as night follows day.
I have always been 100% regimental and I haven’t done what I should do and sometimes you can be a casualty of your own success.
They say that truth is the first casualty of war. But there is another casualty as well: trust. As conflict escalates, trust between people and political leaders crumbles away as surely as night follows day.
The image of the scientist who puts the pursuit of truth before anything else has been shattered and replaced by a man on the make or a quasi-religious enthusiast who wants to prove his case at any cost. Science is becoming the tool of campaigning warfare, in which truth is the first casualty.
So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored.
Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.
It looks like caring for the most vulnerable in our society could be yet another casualty of Brexit, with over-stretched and potentially unsafe care services and a reduction in female employment another unforeseen consequence.
I was only 23 and just out of college when I filmed ‘Casualty’ and so nervous, but it was brilliant fun. I was really lucky, and it really helped my career.
It’s often been observed that the first casualty of war is the truth. But that’s a lie, too, in its way. The reality is that, for most wars to begin, the truth has to have been sacrificed a long time in advance.
I’m a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are our first casualty in life – people seem to give them up, quicker than anything, for a ‘reality.’
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