I just read in The
Times of London a day-two story of the massacre in Virginia. Today, tragedy has a face--28 of them. ToL has posted the
photos and brief biographies of the victims of yesterday's horrendous events.
I notice how I'm affected by my viewing of the photo gallery. I feel sorrow and empathy for all affected, and grief for the violent shattering of my country. The other predominant emotion gnawing at me is shock. Shock at the massacre and shock at the lack of coverage of this type being available for our military dead and the casualties of war in Iraq. My reaction to the stories of the victims was because I was able to know something of the people that were lost, the lives they led, how they will be missed. This same courtesy obviously does not extend the "protectors of American Freedom," our troops.
All over the news is the Virginia Tech tragedy while today
127 157* Iraqis died as a result of four bombings. Anyone seen any pictures of any of those victims? Read a bio? Shed a tear? Almost certainly not. Images of Iraqis before they become tragic victims are virtually NEVER available except for the rare images on Middle East television. Even more tragically, our US military lost in Iraq do not get even the cursory treatment which the victims of the VT shootings received. This government, this media, do not want you to feel what I, like most Americans, felt today while viewing the very real faces lost in what is essentially the war we have over here in our own
culture of violence. We have need to answer Bush's false, ridiculous question of, "Fighting the enemy over there so we don't have to fight them over here." We're already here, and
the enemy is us.
* At 3:30 PM CST, the latest death toll in todays Iraq bombings stands at
183
2 comments:
To me this VTech coverage shows the extent to which the corporate media controls the national agenda, to our detriment. Yes, it's terrible and heartbreaking, but I don't think the average news consumer wants to see vacuous coverage 24/7 for three days and counting. I certainly don't.
Hey, news networks - they call it "news" because it's, you know, new. You are so asinine to stay on that story continuously when you have nothing new to report. And taping another person's shock and grief isn't "news."
Frankly, other than as a personal tragedy to the families of the affected and that community, it is not that important in the larger scheme of things. I'll turn the news on again next week and see if it's died down.
Most of the "news" networks had their own theme music to this shooting in mins. Like somehow it needs a good soundtrack!
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