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September 8, 2005Echos of Madame DeFargeHad a little tussle with someone I respect a lot, today. He has been very deeply affected by the pathos of Katrina - as have we all - and today he was riffing on politicians (“they are all scalliwags, every one of them, on both sides,” says he) which I didn’t much mind - but then he began to make those “and now those rotten Bushies don’t want to show pictures of the bodies” harrumphs that I really, really could not understand. What is this need some on the left have to see the bodies of the dead? “Show us the dead bodies!” Is what I am reading on lefty blogs.
“More of this, please,” they demand, “Bring out the dead!” There you go - there’s a picture! You like it? You like looking at that? That’s someone’s father or brother or husband or grandpa! Would you like it if it was YOUR father, or brother or husband or grandpa being displayed like that? I don’t think anyone would. Now…I understand why the press is skeptical of any excuse the administration might give as to not wanting the bodies of the dead to be photographed and displayed for fifty cents a copy in the paper and for free - worldwide - on the ‘net. The press living in knee-jerk distrust of every motivation of this administration -do not want to hear anything about sensitivity and dignity. Suspicious of the Bushies, they immediately assume the worst: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DOES NOT WANT US TO SEE THE BODIES BECAUSE IT IS VISUALLY DISTRESSING AND WILL CREATE NEGATIVE FEELINGS IN THE PUBLIC. Well…yes…maybe. But even if that is true - even if the Bush Administration is the most cynical, manipulative, uncaring, self-promoting regime ever in the history of the world - even if the Bush Administration is EVERYTHING the press and the left say they are, and MORE…shouldn’t common decency for our fellow human beings preclude the exposure of our dead to sell papers and garner ratings? Look…I’m not saying that the feds are motivated by their better angels in not wanting those pictures shown. They may not be - so what? Whether they are or are not - showing those pictures is still wrong. Sometimes a thing is right or wrong simply because it is right or wrong, and other considerations be damned. The press might bristle at feeling like it’s being controlled by the WH…and they might want to get spiteful, stick out the jaw and say, “oh yeah? Who died and made you king?” And then they might go out of their way to show the pictures, just to prove that they are in charge, and not the Bushies, that they won’t take orders from the WH, etc, etc. But…no matter how much they might WANT to do that…they really simply shouldn’t. It would be wrong. It just would. Think if the person you loved more than anyone in the world was in that water, would you want his or her picture all over the place? Would you want your pet’s dead, bloated body put out there for all to see? Oh, I know, I know, I know, some are saying their are “noble” reasons for showing the dead. What might those be, please? Because I am trying to understand why the press quite rightly decided that NONE of the dead of 9/11 should be shown (after the first day or so’s shock wore off), but now believe that Katrina’s dead should be put on display. After 9/11 the press said - again, quite sensibly - that it would be too cruel to have survivors of those people suddenly turn on the television or pick up a paper and see their wife or their husband, or their mother or their son, lying dead on the front page (or on a split screen with Chris Matthews) - looking vulnerable and victimized and afforded no dignity or grace. Can we be consistant, here? Please tell me how, suddenly, it would be quite all right for some distressed evacuee, now living in a Texas shelter, to look up at a television screen and see a bloated, discolored “Grandma!” floating in the filthy water. Please tell me how, suddenly, it would be a positive thing for a child to see his dead, disheveled mother, or for some mother to see her floating, half-eaten baby? Please explain it to me. What exactly is the greater good being served? Oh…it “shows the world that Bush is a racist manslaughterer?” Well, no…it shows the world that hurricanes are deadly, that people should be evacuated using all available means of transportation when a big storm is on the way, and it shows that terrible tragedies happen, sometimes and that our better angels should be moving us toward bringing some dignity into the horrific ends of these people’s lives, rather than exploiting them. Some people, particularly if they have been poor, have been exploited all their damn lives. They should not be exploited in death, as well. It would be, I think…a sin. I don’t care how much you hate the president and want to do his presidency harm - it is indecent and grossly insensitive to the surviving family members of these folks to put their bodies on public display. There is news reporting, and then there is cruel and gratuitous, sensationalistic voyeurism, which serves nothing but a malicious feeling, and a base instinct. Confederate Yankee has more thoughts, as does protein wisdom. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/09/08/echos-of-madame-defarge/trackback/ 13 Responses to “Echos of Madame DeFarge” |
September 7th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
With respect to your filing catagory “Why can’t weeee be friends?” —
In interpersonal relationships, people will often have disagreements and spats, but they will later reconcile and make up. However, there also comes a time in many relationships, even in those with people we love, where things are said that should not have been said and cannot be taken back, and they permanently and irreparably sever the ties to the other person. Hateful and malicious words, which just hang there in the air after they have been unwisely spoken. It is that line that should never be crossed, the piece of straw that shouldn’t be placed on the camel’s back, the bridge that should not be burned.
Sadly, that line was crossed by the hate-filled left long ago, but still some of us were still willing to try to work with and live with and associate with them. Well, no more. Any ties of amicability have been permanently severed. I want nothing more to do with them. They keep spouting that if only they were in power, they would unite the country. The truth is, it is they who have done so much to divide the country, and to divide the world, that there will be a permanent separation, a permanent distrust, and permanent contempt for that side. They disgust me. No more arguing with them, no more shouting. I want nothing more to do with them. I can only pray that the actual numbers of these festering hate-mongers are artificially inflated by their comrades in the media, and that they are actually very few.
September 7th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
Decency and respect have no place in the ‘debate,’ such as it is.
They need to see the pictures so that the ‘feelings’ might overwhelm the thinking and rational thought.
You know- Louis Farrakhan is filmed giving out candy to children.
He’s gotta bea nice guy, right?
September 7th, 2005 at 9:33 pm
Bodies of the Dead
Please tell me how, suddenly, it would be a positive thing for a child to see his dead, disheveled mother, or for some mother to see her floating, half-eaten baby? —– I don’t care how much you hate the president and want to do his presi…
September 7th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
S,G&A put it well: there is something about the radical left that’s attracting feelers (vs. thinkers) these days. Facts do not matter. Having nothing to do with “them” is not an option for many of us who want to stay married and remain in our otherwise nice communities. For us, these intensifying political battles go internal. There is no washing our hands of it as humanity cannot be disconnected from itself but for its own loss. There is only a pain in the pit of one’s stomach, and a wish that the rabble-rousing of the Jesse Jacksons and the DailyKos’ of the world will be seen by rational people for what it is: self promotional hate-stoking sans compass.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
The Gallup Poll numbers of 13% who blame Bush should give you some hope that all the Left’s efforts are falling on fallow ground.
The last generation at the helm of the MSM at least pretended they were fair and balanced….Now you can’t even read the Comics.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
I find it interesting that the networks stopped showing people jumping from the Twin Towers very soon after 9/11. Those pictures - in which you only saw very small figures and there was no way to identify anybody -were judged “in bad taste” and “inflammatory.” We might get mad at terrorists all over again if we saw them - so they were yanked. (Just like the pictures of Palestinians celebrating 9/11 were yanked - don’t want Americans getting angry at the wrong people now, do we?)
But now that the Left thinks they have a good chance at blaming Bush for Katrina, their delicacy seems to have evaporated. Never mind the pain it might cause to someone who might be able to identify a loved one lying there bloated and floating in a pool of filth. It might hurt Bush! That’s all that matters, and all that ever will, right up to January 2009.
September 8th, 2005 at 12:18 am
Showing the Dead
Andrew Sullivan, as usual, is in full hysterical screed mode in this post:FEMA is trying to censor the reality in New Orleans, under the guise of “respect” for the dead…The press should ignore those requests, get boats themselves and show…
September 8th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
Anchoress, you know I respect and admire you a lot. I see the necessity of putting the picture in the post because you were proving a point, but I just can’t bring myself to view it. I saw it the other day and it made me sick to think someone would take a picture like that. You’re right. He was someone’s loved one and he deserves respect. Under normal circumstances if he were found this way his body would not be shown at a funeral home. And tell your friend to screw off!
September 8th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Jeanette, believe me - I don’t like that picture being there. Everytime I scroll down to find someone in my blogroll, I see it and it upsets me, too.
But people need to see what it is that’s being demanded, right now, but these folks.
September 8th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Anchoress, in no way am I judging you. It is the people who first published that picture and the ones who want more I have a problem with. You were proving a point to your idiotic friend and I agree with what you did. Please don’t think I’m criticizing you about the picture. It’s just so gruesome I don’t know why people would want to look at a lot of it. Instead of taking a photo why didn’t the photography crew, loosen the body from its trap and find a decent place to put it for burial? Because that wouldn’t be news, would it? A sad state our country is in these days. It seems like Revelation is being fulfilled each day with the careless attitudes of those who want to see death in all its gory glory.
September 8th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD, CHIMPY! BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!
Well, it looks like the newest lefty Katrina talking point is beginning to clarify itself, and it's one of the worst yet. The jackals must be getting desperate. Exhibit A: Kerry-supporting, anti-war "conservative" Andrew Sullivan…
September 9th, 2005 at 9:11 pm
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September 10th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
Yeah, we need more
of this. What’s wrong with people? The double-st…