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PICTORIAL REVIEW

An important story honors soldiers and touches family

Editor, The Times:

I am a teacher who has taught for 35 years. My husband, both sons and daughter-in-law are all proudly serving in the military of the United States of America. I am a mother of a soldier who just returned from a year of duty in Iraq with the 101st Airborne. I am the wife of a soldier currently serving in Kuwait.

I think that we should have the right to see powerful photos that tell an important story. The photo that was published in your paper of the flag-draped coffins returning to the United States from Kuwait tells a story of the respect shown to the fallen and the realities of war.

I wept when I saw the picture. I wept for the young lives lost. I wept for all the loved ones, mothers, fathers, wives, brothers, sisters and friends who are awaiting them back home. I wept because I am afraid for my husband and for my son, who will most likely return.

However, I was not offended by the picture or the story. Nor would I have been offended if one of the soldiers had been my own. I would have felt grateful to the people who respected, honored and took such good care of the soldiers.

I do not think that Tami Silicio (who took the photograph) and David Landry (her husband) should have lost their jobs. We (supposedly) have freedom of the press in our country. At the present time, too much information is being suppressed by our government.

Thank you, Tami, and The Seattle Times for giving us the right to view such a powerful image. It will remain forever in my heart and mind.
Marcia Grace Snook, La Porte City

Antithesis of right

Tami Silicio should be fired ("Woman loses her job over coffins photo," Times, page one, April 22). For that matter, so should your paper for publishing it.

Should my son die defending his country, I want to be the first civilian to see his coffin, instead of seeing the picture of it put in the media for the anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-Christian, anti-freedom, anti-common-sense crowd to bemoan.

God bless George W. Bush.
Barbara Washington, Seattle

Afterimage and afterthought

Our soldiers are rocking the seats of power in the Middle East, never a safe thing to do, but with much better odds of surviving than previous wars. The Silicio photograph doesn't show the percentages, and the anti-Bush viewers will be thinking that doesn't matter, but the soldiers know the odds are greatly in their favor and the work is deeply satisfying.

Only half your readers will see the picture and think, "Hate Bush," while the other half will see it and think, "Thank you, and rest in peace."

Neither group will give much thought to those who did the killing, those taught to hate The Great Satan from the cradle so their mullahs and imams could distract them from their poverty.
Margaret Wiggins, Bothell

Praise from seer

Whom do I talk to about nominating Tami Silicio for the Pulitzer Prize in news photography?
Scott Coughlin, Seattle

Negative preserved

I — who am not an American, but am constantly being bombarded with the ideal that American democracy and the American way of freedom, truth and justice constitute the pinnacle of evolved government within the free world — find it very difficult to understand why a photo of the coffins of your fallen soldiers who lost their lives in trying to bring peace and democracy to a land split asunder by hate, terror and religious fervor, should evoke a reaction that smacks of heavy-handed censorship and draconian state control.
Debra-Anna Thomson, Sockburn, Christchurch, New Zealand

Eyes wide shut

It is un-American that Tami Silicio was fired (by Maytag Aircraft). How is it that it was OK to print and broadcast the photos of the U.S. workers (in Iraq) who were burned alive and hung from a bridge, but not OK to print the photos of the flag-draped coffins.

I appreciate that the Pentagon is sensitive to the feelings of the bereaved families, but in this case, the anonymous flag-draped coffins were far more comforting than (seeing) the charred remains of the U.S. workers a few weeks back.

Again, we fail to focus on the more important aspects of the war: supporting our troops, their families and bringing them all home alive!
Piper Isenberg, Edmonds

In service of pain

I am deeply disturbed by your publishing the picture of the American soldiers' coffins being sent back to the U.S. I am perplexed why the person who took the photo has attracted so much negative attention, not unjustly, and The Times seems to have gotten away with publishing the photo virtually unscathed.

It is my understanding that there has been a moratorium on printing such photos as this since the early 1990s. I am deeply disappointed and regret having had the faith in The Times that I did for so long. I find it hard to believe that this picture was published for the purpose of informing the public of anything important.

The picture only serves to hurt those who are already suffering and depress those of us who are informed but need no such graphic reminder of the pain associated with our "humanitarian" efforts in the war.
Lyndell Potter, Seattle

Silence superimposed

I find the actions of the editors at your publication commendable. Journalism should be concerned only with truth, and judgment should not be constrained by the morality of reporting such truths.

We find it unpleasant to be shown graves of our fellow man, but we should be shown them because it is true, and we only find it unpleasant because the truth is so. To hide from the truth is to be ignorant to our responsibility as members of a democracy: We must participate in our democracy in accordance with our beliefs, but our beliefs (if our democracy is to be true) must be founded on truthful fact.

The American government, in banning the publication of any images containing the coffin of a dead soldier, has attacked the very core of that sacred ideology which it claims to serve: our free and democratic societies.
David White, Glasgow, Scotland

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