August 31, 2013

Ben Woolford
The Sun Sentinel
500 E. Broward Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316

RE: Watch your language lest “Trousered Apes” overrun the citadel – Some comments on your Sun Sentinel Page 1 story headlined “A Day of Double Tragedy at the Zoo”.

Mr. Woolford,

Pray tell but if the deaths of a very large rat and a top of the line predator are “tragic” how would you describe the coming Cruise missile strike on Syria [Page 2], 6 dead in Egypt [Page 7A], Suicide bomber kills 8 [Page 7A], the Battle of Waterloo [Page 18A] and a veteran’s suicide [Page 20A] in the same Sun Sentinel?

Missy the rat and Osceola the wannabe man-eater were animals.

Man is the only animal that knows it is going to die. It is one of the hallmarks of extramental existence. Missy and Osceola, however cute and engaging for a rodent and a 4 legged, hugely fanged, carnivorous predator, did not know that.

While your use of “tragedy” is not “tragic” it is a sloppy use of language that should not have escaped your editor’s supposedly gimlet eye

Journalists should be like the Spartan hoplites at Thermopylae. They are our first and last defense against the culture busting onslaught of the unsmiling barbarians at the gate.

Antigone was a tragedy.

King Lear was a tragedy.

The Obama administration is roaring past tragedy, careening towards farce, at warp speed.

Missy and Osceola were not members of the House of Atreus. They are dead; they are gone; they are not in animal heaven.




Kevin Smith