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May 13, 2008

Why the Dead Bodies Now?

I've noticed over the past week that all of a sudden the mainstream news websites are displaying photographs of dead bodies without any warning. None of the usual disclaimers or requirements that you click through before being able to see the pictures. We've seen right at the top of the page photos of bloated corpses floating in the water in Myanmar, and now we're seeing photos of half-buried bodies in the wreckage of China. No warnings of graphic content. It's just sitting out there for all to see.

So why does this bother me? Because, if you remember, we were NOT allowed to see the dead bodies of our own sons, brothers, and fathers returning home from Iraq. We couldn't even see the coffins lined up. Something important like that, which would have brought home to us all the price of our decision to invade Iraq and perhaps even forced our leaders to be straight with us about why they felt that was necessary, we were not allowed to see.

So why are we now suddenly being shown dead bodies?

I am not personally frightened by photographs of dead bodies, though I think many people, and especially children, are. Rather, I feel that showing them so freely robs the dead and their families of their decency and privacy, and that is wrong. Imagine if the corpses we were seeing were Americans who were victims of tornadoes, earthquakes, or floods. You'll notice we haven't been shown any of those victims.

And that brings me to something else that I think it's high time we each faced in our own hearts. Last night I overheard someone saying that China, with all its billions of people, was no worse off for losing 10,000 in an earthquake. It was as if he was talking about dollars, rather than human beings. And I think if we're being honest with ourselves, most of us would react a lot differently to photographs of dead Caucasians than we would to photographs of dead Asians or dead Arabs or dead Africans, which somehow seem more distant, less frightening, and maybe even less human. Could that be the reason why we're seeing photos of dead people in Myanmar and China, but not in America, where we are also having some pretty hefty attacks by Mother Nature? And isn't it time we all face the racist beast inside and conquer it once and for all?

Posted by Becky at May 13, 2008 08:40 AM