To the editor:
In light of what the writer of the Sept. 15 letter to the editor said, concerning my letter of Sept. 10, I'd like to say a few things.
First of all, I've been a lunchtime reader of the Journal-World for the last five to ten years, regardless of its journalistic ethics.
Secondly, with a father who's been a minister for the last 33 years, I've heard or witnessed my fair share of obituaries to the point that I feel I know when a line has been crossed in the name of sensitivity.
Lastly, the writer's comments show how far we still have to come as a society to be more sensitive to other cultures in America. Did the writer consider whether or not it was culturally disrespectful to photograph the deceased within the realm of Zuni, Navajo or Pottawatomi culture? Or did he have enough sense of history to realize that there's been a double standard in society towards all minorities that was supposedly legislated out with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I didn't absolve the truck's occupants of the consequences of drinking and driving. But I hoped the paper would be more sensitive in its application of journalistic ethics, concerning what they photographed. Again, it shows how far we still have to go to show respect towards each other's cultures in America in 1999.
Mike Ford,
Lawrence.
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