Want to see the most powerful 30 seconds or so on television?
It doesn't involve amateur singers waiting to see if they last another week on "Idol", or has-been actors hoping for another week of relevance on "Dancing With The Stars."
It's certainly not the NCAA tournament--not this March with one-and-two seeds dominating and drama in short supply.
Its not on "The Great Race" or "Grey's" or "Ugly Betty".
It happens every Sunday morning, between 10:20 and 10:30 CST on ABC.
It comes after George Stephanopolous trots the usual talking heads through his ABC studio for another edition of "This Week"...a fine show, no doubt, with the weekly roundtable one of my must-see's.
What comes after never fails to generate a tear.
It's simple.
It's quiet.
It's sad.
It's the weekly list of names of men and women killed in Middle East fighting.
Sons and daughters, listed in simple white font on a black screen amid downcast music. Names, ranks, hometowns.
Nothing is said.
Nothing has to be.
Making it sadder is the fact that this is about the only national exposure these noble souls will get. News of military deaths, even in this age of media saturation, is scatter-shot. Your government doesn't want you to see their caskets when they arrive stateside. About the only time we put a name and a face to the death toll is if the soldier comes from our hometown, when the story's made local and personal.
The list is also powerful for what it DOESN'T include--the names of the scores that are wounded, maimed and forever changed by combat, both physically and mentally. Until the Walter Reed scandal, those brave contributors remained largely under the national radar.
Out of sight. Out of mind.
Rosie O'Donnell struck a chord Monday morning on "The View", pointing out the national angst and tooth-gnashing that came after some house pets died from tainted store-bought food, while virtually nothing was said about the 23 service people killed in Iraq last week.
The paraphrased response from her fellow panelists: the pet story is new. The Iraq story is old...sad, but old.
Sad, indeed.
It doesn't involve amateur singers waiting to see if they last another week on "Idol", or has-been actors hoping for another week of relevance on "Dancing With The Stars."
It's certainly not the NCAA tournament--not this March with one-and-two seeds dominating and drama in short supply.
Its not on "The Great Race" or "Grey's" or "Ugly Betty".
It happens every Sunday morning, between 10:20 and 10:30 CST on ABC.
It comes after George Stephanopolous trots the usual talking heads through his ABC studio for another edition of "This Week"...a fine show, no doubt, with the weekly roundtable one of my must-see's.
What comes after never fails to generate a tear.
It's simple.
It's quiet.
It's sad.
It's the weekly list of names of men and women killed in Middle East fighting.
Sons and daughters, listed in simple white font on a black screen amid downcast music. Names, ranks, hometowns.
Nothing is said.
Nothing has to be.
Making it sadder is the fact that this is about the only national exposure these noble souls will get. News of military deaths, even in this age of media saturation, is scatter-shot. Your government doesn't want you to see their caskets when they arrive stateside. About the only time we put a name and a face to the death toll is if the soldier comes from our hometown, when the story's made local and personal.
The list is also powerful for what it DOESN'T include--the names of the scores that are wounded, maimed and forever changed by combat, both physically and mentally. Until the Walter Reed scandal, those brave contributors remained largely under the national radar.
Out of sight. Out of mind.
Rosie O'Donnell struck a chord Monday morning on "The View", pointing out the national angst and tooth-gnashing that came after some house pets died from tainted store-bought food, while virtually nothing was said about the 23 service people killed in Iraq last week.
The paraphrased response from her fellow panelists: the pet story is new. The Iraq story is old...sad, but old.
Sad, indeed.
2 comments:
Somebody said to me that they wondered why I "felt like nobody named the soldiers, they probably (we were too young to know) didn't have the Vietnam war deaths on the news every night."
The only thing I could think of was that this is the first time a war has been volunteer. With a draft, I imagine everyone knew SOMEONE in harm's way and you felt the true sadness and fear. It is 'easier' for the gov't to hide caskets from us now and very few question it.
Right now, those of us without a loved one in Iraq or Afganistan could very easily just ignore it and focus on Anna Nicole or pet food issues. How very sad.
Exactly...however, the saddest part is their ages. I wince each week....the majority are under 25.
Post a Comment