Darn you, The Post. Once again, a decision you've made has gotten enough people's knickers in a twist to warrant an actual bout of anger from my withered heart, enough to pry me away from the homework I am totally not procrastinating on long enough to respond to the photo you published of the suicide threat guy.
I'm going to state right off the bat that I do have a distinct problem with how this was handled: Why did the editor in chief need to take up half the opinion page on Monday to talk about his decision? Yes, you published the photo. End of story.
I've read all the arguments, listened patiently to everyone who says this man should be treated with the utmost care and I'm going to phrase this with as much care and sympathy as I can muster: Grow up. This guy did not need to publicize his suicide attempt, but he did. Now, I don't think he wanted attention; I think he needed someone to talk him out of it. He needed a stranger to convince him that he could pull through, that his life was worth living.
Now comes the humiliation, and no, I refuse to be nice about this. He made a stupid choice; now he needs to have a few hushed tones and corner-of-the-eye glances to drive the point home. He needs to be humiliated and ridiculed, to see just how much of a dope you have to be to do what he did. I don't care about political correctness or his feelings. He screwed up, time for him to realize it.
So, yes, his photo goes in the paper. Not only because it is newsworthy, not only because he publicized himself. That's all legal mumbo-jumbo. He needs to reap the social consequences of what he's done in order to truly realize how much he has to live for, and how pointless throwing all of that away would have been.
And if you all would get off the PC high horse to act like human beings, you might remember that sometimes all someone needs is to be told what an idiot he is.
Warren Locke is a senior journalism major and former Post columnist.
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Letter to the Editor
