" And how do you give the person dignity in death under these circumstances ? "
For starters, you don't allow CNN to broadcast their images.
Where I fault CNN is their spin against Bush and their failure to address the lack of state and local leadership.
I don't honestly know if it's truly respectful to allow all these people to die, yet show none of them on televison.
What is a funeral viewing other than showing a dead corpse to people, albeit they are generally family and friends. I think we may be shortchanging the people who died.
These people suffered terrible circumstances and died, yet we fail to show what happend to them, where they came to rest. I have mixed emotions about sanitizing this too much.
If you struggled for your life, you fought tenatiously to live on, were injured and suffered the ultimate indignity, would you really rather nobody knew of what you went through and where you finally wound up.
I see that as a part of honoring those people. It's acknowledging them and for a brief moment reaching out to them with our attention and condolences. Without seeing that, how can I say that I identify with their deaths individually, not just as a big stat in someone's ledger.
I understand where you're coming from, I'm just not convinced that's the only concern here.