Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:48 PM 11/17/03 -0700, Kit McChesney wrote: > >My thoughts on this subject may not count for much in this group, since I'm >female, never served in the military, and have not photographed a military >event. However, it seems to me that there are some important points to >consider. > >People who serve in our military deserved to be honored. To me, that means >that their lives should be taken seriously, before, during and after they >are sent into any conflict. Respectful documentation of the work they do is >a form of honoring their commitment and contribution to the citizenry. >Documenting lives that have been lost, or soldiers who have been injured, >keeps the reality of who they are in the public eye, where it belongs. The >people who are responsible for sending those people into conflict should be >held accountable for having done so, and if no one sees the truth of what >has occurred--and that may mean images of caskets, or body bags, or the >kinds of images we witnessed on television during Vietnam--then that is what >should be seen. ========================= Kit I DO have a military perspective on this. I spent four years on active duty, four years in the National Guard, and twelve more in the Army Reserve. I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1994. My father was retired during World War II on medical reasons. I had relatives in every major American conflict going back, at the least, to the War of Jenkin's Ear -- every one a volunteer, by the way. No one on either side of my family was ever drafted. You raise some fascinating points but the primary issues here are a) privacy and b) political use of the pictures taken. We have discussed privacy to the point where we have reached some conclusions but let us address the second point. If I were recalled to active duty (to which I am subject for the rest of my life, though you WOULD know that things were really a-gley at MY mobilization!) and were killed, I would not want a picture of MY body or MY casket or MY funeral to be used in any sort of anti-War protest or as insignia on anti-War posters. It is not that I am in favor of war, as I am assuredly not -- and, for that matter, I am MOST opposed to the curent Iraqi imbroglio, though I generally keep my mouth shut on this as I have friends over there right now - -- but that I accept the fundamental reality that those who are willing to be citizens of a free country must occasionally die in its defence: Thomas Jefferson, himself no warrior, wrote that "[T]he Tree of Liberty must be nourished from time to time by the blood of patriots", and that is my position. So, if I should buy the farm, then let my death go unnoted save by my family and allow me the honor of not making some sort of cheap political statement out of my death. I have my own political views. These have rarely been brought forth on this List and I would appreciate the LUG not becoming overly politicized. My beliefs are my own -- but I would never wish my death to become someone else's political statement. Neutral reportage is one thing, but this thread arose on the access of advocacy journalits to photograph the bodies of the dead to make a political point, and it is just crude, rude, and nasty to do this. Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html