Great column by Bob Kerr in the Providence Journal of 07-15-09. “Real grief in the face of something else” is the column title. Kerr is talking about the “mourning cricus for the lost man-child of Neverland,” Michael Jackson.
And then he tells us of another young man, killed by an IED in Afghanistan. But the media didn’t cover that death.
Says Kerr, “It is not new, this failure to cover our wars, to keep them in front of us and make us aware of the losses and the price paid…. But…the slobbering public fascination with a man who seemed to run from his own identity only makes the slighting of our war dead more shameful. Maybe, someday, we will confront our wars and what they’ve done to us…. But that won’t happen until something else happens. That won’t happen until we find out for sure who’s going to get custody of Michael Jackson’s kids.” Thanks Mr. Kerr for reminding us – yet again.
Great article in the new version of Newsweek, 07-2-09. I like the new format that focuses on analysis rather than reporting the news. Michael Beschloss writes about Robert McNamara, “The Wrong Man: JFK’s McNamara mistake.” It turns out that JFK was “enchanced with McNamara.” But Bobby saw McNamara as “the most dangerous man in the cabinet.”
McNamara, like so many, kept going with the war, that time Vietnam. He kept going with the war even after he thought it was wrong. Sounds like so many people in the Bush administration not speaking out during their tenure. Just letting everything fall apart. Accountability anyone?
