Eminent Domain Stuff
New London Update (2/24/06)
Bad NLDC!
Coverage of the Rally at New London's City Hall (w/ pics)
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Thoughts on The Fallen
All too often, those who die in service of out country in the Armed Forces are reduced to mere numbers in the day-to-day reporting of war. While certainly this is not right, it is to some extent inevitable. Human beings have a finite capability to absorb information and a not unlimited ability to grieve. While I think all Americans share my desire to shed tears of appreciation and love for our soldiers, it is simply not possible to treat each and every death as we would that of a family member or close friend.
That being said, we must do whatever we can to honor and remember all soldiers and especially those who have died. Tonight’s Nightline broadcast probably came as close as possible to doing just that. The name, rank, age and photograph of each soldier put faces to the numbers that we hear about in the news every day.
Probably the most striking thing about the list as a whole was the absolute diversity of our men and women. I would be willing to bet that one would have a difficult time finding any country on the face of the earth that has as many people from different cultural backgrounds united, fighting and willing to risk life and limb for the same cause. If that doesn’t say something about our country, then I don’t know what does.
It’s hard for me to criticize right this second because of the feelings that this program elicited. However, I would like to comment on the actual format of the show.
I believe Ted Koppel when he says that the decision to do this was to raise our fallen above the politics of the day (paraphrase). I do, however, take serious issue with ABC’s apparent unwillingness to “raise our fallen” above financial interests. Would it have put the network out of business to broadcast this program without commercials? I find it in very poor taste to have the list of dead American soldiers interrupted by, for example, a commercial for a car dealership. Was there not one single company out there willing to put up the money to sponsor these 30 minutes? Failing that, was there not one ABC executive willing to take a hit one night for the sake of our Fallen?
In the end, I think the speculation that this would be an excuse to air antiwar propaganda was plain wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Each and every death is significant and horrible. However, war is a terrible thing and death is inevitable. The very idea that someone can speak the name of each fallen soldier in 30 minutes is a testament to just how successful we have been over the past year. As Mr. Koppel pointed out, we lost approximately 400,000 soldiers in WWII. That’s an average of close to 66,000 killed each year we were involved in the war. I think that we need to mange the difficult balancing act of honoring and appreciating each and every sacrifice of our soldiers while keeping in mind a reasonable notion of success.
It is because of men and women exactly like those we saw tonight that we will prevail.
God Bless Our Troops.
|
All too often, those who die in service of out country in the Armed Forces are reduced to mere numbers in the day-to-day reporting of war. While certainly this is not right, it is to some extent inevitable. Human beings have a finite capability to absorb information and a not unlimited ability to grieve. While I think all Americans share my desire to shed tears of appreciation and love for our soldiers, it is simply not possible to treat each and every death as we would that of a family member or close friend.
That being said, we must do whatever we can to honor and remember all soldiers and especially those who have died. Tonight’s Nightline broadcast probably came as close as possible to doing just that. The name, rank, age and photograph of each soldier put faces to the numbers that we hear about in the news every day.
Probably the most striking thing about the list as a whole was the absolute diversity of our men and women. I would be willing to bet that one would have a difficult time finding any country on the face of the earth that has as many people from different cultural backgrounds united, fighting and willing to risk life and limb for the same cause. If that doesn’t say something about our country, then I don’t know what does.
It’s hard for me to criticize right this second because of the feelings that this program elicited. However, I would like to comment on the actual format of the show.
I believe Ted Koppel when he says that the decision to do this was to raise our fallen above the politics of the day (paraphrase). I do, however, take serious issue with ABC’s apparent unwillingness to “raise our fallen” above financial interests. Would it have put the network out of business to broadcast this program without commercials? I find it in very poor taste to have the list of dead American soldiers interrupted by, for example, a commercial for a car dealership. Was there not one single company out there willing to put up the money to sponsor these 30 minutes? Failing that, was there not one ABC executive willing to take a hit one night for the sake of our Fallen?
In the end, I think the speculation that this would be an excuse to air antiwar propaganda was plain wrong. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Each and every death is significant and horrible. However, war is a terrible thing and death is inevitable. The very idea that someone can speak the name of each fallen soldier in 30 minutes is a testament to just how successful we have been over the past year. As Mr. Koppel pointed out, we lost approximately 400,000 soldiers in WWII. That’s an average of close to 66,000 killed each year we were involved in the war. I think that we need to mange the difficult balancing act of honoring and appreciating each and every sacrifice of our soldiers while keeping in mind a reasonable notion of success.
It is because of men and women exactly like those we saw tonight that we will prevail.
God Bless Our Troops.
|
