Letter: Appalled by photos of family grief and bike
Posted: July 12, 2010 - 12:16am
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By Debbie Larew
Editor: Friday morning I read the front page as I always do. Even though I didn't know her, I was saddened to see the article of the young woman killed on her dirt bike. I was also appalled at the treatment her family received by the St. Augustine Record. To add insult to injury the Record plastered the family's grief all over the front page for gawkers to share. The insert of the burnt dirt bike was bad enough but her grieving friends and family did not deserve to be photographed and exploited on your front page. Even worse was the treatment of the grieving father and sister as the Record used their raw grief to make copy. This is not the way St. Augustine folks treat their neighbors.
I long for the day when I giggled at your St. Augustine feral chickens headlines and wondered if there was not something more newsworthy in town. This family's grief is not the news we need. Leave private citizens' private lives where they belong -- in private. Actual news reporting may be more difficult to come by but we who live here and subscribe to your paper expect decency and respect for our neighbors.
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
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