Suppose someone you know died, and his surviving family didn't talk about his life. You went to the wake, but the only thing they did was read off a short list of attributes: lived in Topeka, Kansas; worked as an insurance adjuster; was married with three kids; dead at 49.
Nobody prayed for the departed soul, nor did anyone try to publicly comfort the family. No eulogies were delivered; there were no amusing anecdotes about the deceased, or heartfelt recollections. If this is was supposed to honor a man's life, you would probably think that reducing him to the facts listed on a credit application was inadequate, if not disrespectful.
"Nightline" is pretty much doing the same thing, only they're just sticking to the names of the dead. Powerline quotes Arthur Chrenkoff:
Ted Koppel will be again reading out the names of American soldiers fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan sice last year. I've got a modest proposal to Ted Koppel and "Nightline": why don't you read one day the names and show the pictures of the 170,000 or so American servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan who every day are working their hardest to ensure that democracy takes root, terrorists are defeated, and these two countries have a chance to build a better future for their people. That might convince a cynic such as myself that you really care for the troops generally, and not just only when they can be cynically used to embarrass the Bush Administration.170,000 is more names than they can cover in an hour, so here's a counter-proposal: why not do an hour on medal winners of Operation Iraqi Freedom?
How about Army Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, who received a Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for saving 100 of his fellow soldiers, and giving up his life to do it?
Or Marine Sergeant Raphael Peralta, whose last act was to shield his squad from a grenade with his own body?
Or PFC Patrick Miller, who singlehandedly wiped out an Iraqi mortar position to stop them from blowing up a fuel truck and his fellow soldiers?
One would think those stories are eminently more watchable than a laundry list of names. The last time he did this, Koppel insisted he was "honoring the troops" or some platitude. I don't watch "Nightline," so maybe they have done a multitude of positive stories about U.S. troops. If so, they have gone unnoticed by the sources I read. (Chime in if you watch the show regularly.)
If not, then reducing human lives to their names and the fact of their demise is disingenuous. When we want to honor the memory of our loved ones, we talk about them, not just their deaths.
I hadn't thought of it this way before - very interesting observation.
Thank you for bringing up the names of a few of our American heroes. It struck me how much our despicable news media has spent 10,000% more time on the gross mistakes of a few in our military and completely sent any good stories of heroism down its biased rat hole of non-coverage of anything good about America and its efforts in the world.
It would be a far saner world if nobody knew who Lynndie England was except her fellow inmates, and men like Paul Smith were household names.
I would go nuts if I didn't believe in divine justice in the afterlife, absolutely nuts.
Eric -- I can agree that more should be done to honor the troops who are living and fighting for the Iraqis' freedom -- one of my very close friends is one such soldier. But I have to say that if, God forbid, she were to die, I would want her honored for ultimately giving all that she had to give. I would also want the people to hear her name and to know that she was a real person, that she had a family and friends, and that she is not just "collateral damage" of this war, she is the direct result of unjust and poorly planned war.
Hopefully I'll never have to think about that, because I trust in God that he'll bring her home.
The attitude of the Ted Koppels of the world is nothing new:
"Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,—
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.
We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,—
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there’s trouble in the wind.
~Rudyard Kipling, "Tommy Atkins"
Tweren't for narcissism, we'd have no media celebrities at all...though you can bet we'd still have heroes like the ones you've named.
I believe reading names like this is an old tradition. You also see the pictures of the dead. On "honor rolls" growing up I saw the names of those who died in World War II. Just the names. We had several of these in Carnegie, Pa, a town of maybe 12,000.
larry davis
I watch Nightline pretty regularly, and I think in general their coverage has been pretty balanced and fair.
and I was thinking more about this, and in the intentions for the dead in a mass, it is normally just the names.
larry davis in TEXAS