Saturday, September 5, 2009

Lance Cpl Joshua "Bernie" Bernard, 21 years old.


You know, I never write anything controversial here, because we all have different opinions and I respect that.
But this is too much.
Here is a picture of Lance Cpl. Joshua "Bernie" Bernard, 21 years of age. He lost his life after being struck by a grenade in an ambush, August 14..Bernie is from New Portland, Maine.
Well, it seems the AP has a picture of his fellow Marines working to save his life and put it in the papers. The parents asked not to publish it, but they did, anyway.
Portland Press wouldn't and for that I give them great respect.
What is happening to people? Can you imagine if this was your son? After reading the story, I was sick to my stomach at the callous behavior for the family.
Just look at this picture and what this young man and his family gave up for this country and to have him exploited on front page news. Sickening.
God Bless you Bernie, your family and America.
Till next time, keep looking up.

6 comments:

Chris said...

I was amazed at the insensitivity when I read the story. If a family says please don't, then how could you? Awful, just awful.

Rosihue said...

This story really upset me! I am so disgusted with the AP!

Sylvia K said...

I agree so totally with you! It is upsetting and disgusting of AP! And I can only imagine how I would feel if it were one of my son's! And particularly if the family had requested that it not be published!! Good for you in posting this!

Hey Harriet said...

I'm not sure what the AP is? A newspaper publication of some type I'm guessing. This news doesn't surprise me. Yet it does make me very angry. That behaviour is so unbelievably disrespectful! I'm glad you decided to post about it. Good for you! xo

Unknown said...

How upsetting, and to die so young.

Unknown said...

You know something, you really hit on a nerve with this post. When I was in high school we had the option to take Journalism as our English requirement. We could use it as a segue into a Communications degree in college if it was something we enjoyed. I took it because I was exploring all manners of writing back then. It was one of my very favorite classes and I strongly considered going on for the Comm degree.

What stopped me was that the year I graduated the Gulf War was in full swing. A photo was printed of a whole bunch of caskets with draped flags (this has happened a lot in all wars I know) and the reporter who wrote the story was fired after rousing controversy over the publishing of the photo. At the time I didn't understand, especially since they were not even the one who took the picture or made the final decision to run the story, but I knew it was going to be a cold day in hell before I was fired for writing about something I believed in when it was the visual addition that caused uproar in the first place.

With all of that said, it is difficult for me to truly take a side in this one. I am not saying that I agree the photo should have been run if the family specifically requested it should not be, but that the photographer and journalist in question were simply attempting to do the job set out for them by their employer is the other side of the debate.