Report: U.S. Lifting Coffin-Photo Ban
The Defense Department will reportedly announce today that it is lifting the ban on news photographs of the returning of war dead to the U.S. Rather than hash the issue over again, here's a column I wrote in 2006 about why this is a good idea.
As the HBO movie Taking Chance (based on a true story) demonstrated this month, chronicling the return of war dead does not inherently serve any agenda. But it does serve our awareness of the sacrifice war entails.
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The point you made that chronicling the return of the war dead serves "our awareness of the sacrifice war entails" is so true. My heart goes out to the next of kin, however, and I firmly believe their wishes in the matter should be taken into consideration. During the period 1947-1949, my father (then an army brigadier general) was in charge of the disposition of more than 145,000 war dead of the European Theater. At that time, the next of kin were given the option of having their deceased loved one returned home or reinterred in one of the ten permanent American cemeteries in Europe. Next of kin today should be given a choice between media attention (which many would welcome) or privacy when their loved one is returned home. (My website has more information about this subject--
http://www.cypresspublishingsaratoga.com)
- poniewozik Lisa De M: WH crashers on Today tomorrow. NBC: no $ for intvu. (of course, a show on NBCU's Bravo has no $ value!) http://bit.ly/7hustM - 9 hours ago
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