Take a look at this picture:
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/interactive.aspx?type=ss&launch=30139780,3842331&pg=17
When I saw this picture, my heart sunk and I couldn't believe my eyes. I sat at my desk, fighting tears from rolling down my cheeks. I couldn't remember having ever seen anything like it. The war and the death of our soldiers is a very sensitive subject for me; it has been since March 19, 2003. I had to immediately start searching to figure out why my poor little eyes were seeing this!
It turns out that on February 26, 2009, President Obama lifted the ban on media coverage of fallen soldiers returning home. In 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush placed a ban on media coverage that remained in place until now. Then I remembered seeing airplanes full of flag-covered coffins when I was a little girl. It seemed like the Red, White and Blue of the flags was never ending, there were so many. That must have been right before the ban.
My first reaction to the lifting of the ban was outrage. I don't want to see this every time I open a web page. That is really depressing! What about the families? What are they going to be going through? How can this happen? Why now? Aren't things hard enough right now without all this added to it? And what is the hidden agenda? Then as I thought about it more and more, my thoughts turned to: Have we, as a nation, become desensitized to the death of those out there fighting because it hasn't been in our face? Shouldn't these men and woman have a name and a face and not just a tally mark on our death toll? They are real, but is their death truly real to us? Maybe this is a good thing. By being shielded, have we lost the gripping reality of war? A war we shouldn't be fighting, might I add.
As I started to become more and more okay with the idea of our fallen soldiers being photographed and videotaped as they make their final journey home, one question stilled nagged at me...What about the families? How are they going to make it through the day when every time they open a web page or turn on the TV, there is their son or daughter or husband or cousin or grandchild right there...dead. I can't even take it, and I'm not related to any of them!
As part of the lifting of the ban, President Obama included that soldiers will only be photographed or videotaped with the family's permission, and there is no pressure to allow the coverage. They are the ones who have really suffered the loss, and if they are okay with it, I should be, too, no matter how it makes me feel. And now that I think about it, why shouldn't our soldiers be honored one last time? They deserve it.
The link below is to an article that reviews the ban and the lifting of it. Within it is expressed the views of a few who both support and oppose this decision.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/26/pentagon.media.war.dead/index.html
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