Controversies: May 2005 Archives

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.

From the coverups in the sex-abuse scandal to the strange removals and reinstatements of priests, from the imposition of a dubious anti-abuse program to the silencing of a priest critical of it, from the somewhat arbitrary closing of parishes to the establishment's unwillingness to admit obvious mistakes, Boston Catholics aren't impressed with the quality -- let alone the content -- of the archdiocese's communications over the past couple of years, and some folks are talking back by stiffing the second collection today for the "Catholic Communication Campaign" -- and for the archdiocesan communications office.

Update: the Globe surveys the ongoing fuss.

Word has it that my fellow parishioners are joining in the financial protest. At Sunday's first Mass, the Communications collection took in 19 "funny-money" protest notes and fourteen $1 bills. The priest-administrator of the parish reportedly kicked press and TV reporters off the property and tried vainly to bar them from the sidewalk in front of the church. (That should make some good television.)

At the noon Mass, collection baskets were brimming with the pastel green faux-notes.