Nov 7, 2009
Veterans' Day, November 11th in the United States, will happen in
the coming week. As usual, I have something to say about
that.
We also had a tragic shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. That's the
physically largest military installation in the country, and also
home to the Fort Hood Open Circle, one of the best military Pagan
groups you'll find anywhere. I don't know if any of their
members was directly involved, but having lived and worked on
military bases as much as I did, I can say that the mere fact that
it happened on their base means that they're involved and
affected.
I'd like to offer you something to think about, and it is something
that might not have occurred to you.
And it kind of ties in with one of the main points I was already
prepared to make, but the news of the day underlined the point far
beyond anything I could accomplish.
If you are looking for learning, there is plenty in the news today
that qualifies as learning for The Craft (or whatever you call what
we do). And part of the learning process is to recognize
where a lesson might be found.
Blessed Be!
Aidan, I just listened to your Veterans Day podcast, and I had to comment on something you mentioned regarding the media\'s treatment of veterans in crime stories. You said that if blacks/ African Americans were treated the same way that there would be endless protests. As an African American woman, I can vouch that the news media always report a crime story about an African American while first revealing the criminal is African American and showing a picture of the alleged criminal is shown.
I am a native Californian and most of my televised news experience is Californian, but I have witnessed this phenomenon in other U.S. cities. As a former journalism student, I do recognize the importance of stating the facts of a case for a news story, but time and again when race does not matter, it tends to \"matter\" in crime stories. In the community we could generally tell if an alleged criminal is white if the race of the person is not mentioned.
In peace,
Lobita
I fully agree that too many irrelevancies are published in what passes as journalism today. Some are admittedly unavoidable, such as if a person\'s name indicates a possible ethnic heritage, or if a booking photo is published. But I also recall when a creep tried to attack President Clinton on a visit to Oregon, the news headline claimed that a \"decorated Vietnam veteran\" had been caught. And the, of course, it seems that nobody can talk about Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber) without mentioning that he served in the first Gulf War.
I\'d like it if they would back off of the sensationalism and, in the words of the late Jack Webb, \"Just the facts!\"