The Daily Cougar staff is being heavily criticized for its decision to run a front-page photo of a man shot dead on our campus. However, I agree with the decision to run the photo. We are an institution of higher learning and we are all adults. We do not need our news sanitized or our sensibilities coddled.
The photo was well-done. It reported the reality of a man shot dead on our campus. It was not a close up or sensationalized, with which I would have had a problem.
Although many of your readers seem to feel it shows a lack of respect, I believe the opposite. By showing the body we acknowledge that a man lived and died in our midst, a member of our community.’
As John Donne wrote, ‘No man is an island, entire of itself … any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’ The photo illustrated these powerful words.
Beverly A. McPhail, Women’s Resource Center director
