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No wonder Not that I want my sons to become soldiers and kill people and possibly get killed, but if we did have a draft, it would force us to feel closer to this war and it would end sooner as a result. At my younger son's high school graduation ceremony last week the principal announced that four members of his class of 750 suburban kids would be going into military service. A murmur went around the part of the stadium where I was sitting. "Only four?" It was natural to think that when looking down at the huge flock of blue gowns on the field. It's not kids like my son's Naperville classmates who are joining up; it's the underclass who are dying in Iraq and not enough people care enough about that. We're insulated from the horror in other ways, like not seeing photos and video of returning coffins. Photography is banned at funerals and government embarkation points. I don't quite understand what happens when a photo falls into the hands of a media outlet like the case with the Seattle Times, or if an image is obtained from another location. I've read reports that media coverage is banned by the government, but it's not that clear what the real deal is. I wonder if it must be more a gentleman's agreement made by the media. Anybody know? Easily fascinated A job caught my eye, scanning a mailing list. What would a quality assurance department at the NFL do? Nice Glad to see Dave's having a pleasant trip. Copenhagen looks storybook. Maybe that's what inspired Hans Christian Andersen. Or more likely Andersen caused us to think of his surroundings that way. Impressions are two-way and interactive, I suppose, she thought lazily, because it's Friday. Through a defensive lens I continue to marvel over newspaper reporters whose agenda in dissing new media is so transparently defensive and babyish. They deserve our pity for what must be either an inability to see how silly they look, or an overestimation of the number of their partisans. Either way, it reveals at best a shortage of objectivity, that most revered journalistic trait. Here's Rachel Sklar on Jack Kapica's view of the Mesh conference proceedings through worry-colored glasses. SSFA International Maybe I'll start a new charitable Society for Self-awareness and Fear Abatement for suffering journalists in transition. Who wants to join the board and help save the dignity of some otherwise good writers? ssfai.org is |
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