black…MYstory

In February 2007, I first posted an article about the death of LaVena Johnson.  She had been dead for over a year and a half and I don’t remember reading any newspapers or seeing any television news reporters speaking about the highly suspicious circumstances of her demise.  In fact, had I not stumbled upon an article on AlterNet, I don’t know if I’d have ever coming across her story.

Since that time, with the exceptions of blogs and the media in LaVena Johnson’s hometown, there has not been much coverage of her story.

For those that are not up to speed on this story, LaVena Johnson was found dead of a gunshot wound in her tent, near Balad, Iraq, on July 19, 2005.  The Army ruled her death a suicide, claiming that the Pfc. Johnson shot herself with her own M-16.  From the beginning, her father, Dr. John Johnson, saw huge inconcistencies in the Army’s official story, including the fact that there was a blood trail leading to her tent, she had loose teeth and a broken nose, she had burns on her body (it was later revealed that it appeared that someone had poured a chemical, likely lye, into her vaginal area) but, her body was fully clothed when she was found.  Additionally, residue tests point to the likelihood that she didn’t even handle the weapon that she was supposed to have used to shoot herself.

So, like the story of Pat Tillman, we had another story of a soldier dying, likely at the hands of another soldier (or soldiers) and the official story tries to point away from the evidence.

Sadly, it seems that, at least until now, the Army has kept a tight lid on the story and the mainstream media has largely ignored it.

I am not the only person lamenting this fact.  Linda Lowen, of the About.com Guide to Women’s Issues, blogs about the travesty that is this lack of coverage.

As I have noted, she discusses how it is basically the bloggers keeping this story alive and how the group colorofchange.org that is pushing, along with the family of Pfc. Johnson, to have Congress investigate her death.

It is a shame that, for all the talk of love and concern that we have for our troops, we continue to allow this young woman to have her memory desecrated because the truth is not politically favorable.

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