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michael moore
Desperation, Pain Drives Debate Over Making Photos of Mass Shooting Carnage Public
While some say showing what high-caliber bullets do to children's bodies could spur change, others warn that it risks traumatizing viewers—and re-traumatizing victims and their loved ones.
Jun 03, 2022
Amid the desperation, pain, and frustration in the wake of last month's massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school, there is renewed debate about whether making public post-mortem images of those killed by AR-15s and other assault weapons would help move the public or lawmakers in the U.S. towards taking real action on gun violence and mass shootings.
"I just cannot believe that Americans in this country would see what these weapons do to our children, our teachers, our community, and that they would stand by and do nothing."
In a society that often averts confronting the bloody and graphic consequences of its domestic and foreign policy choices, many people argue the images of children and others who suffer unimaginbale violence--like Emmett Till's pulverized body, Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked and napalm-scorched down a South Vietnamese road, or Derek Chauvin's knee slowly choking the life out of George Floyd--have the power to change minds and potentially upend horrific norms.
Trauma surgeon Amy Goldberg believes Americans wouldn't be so numb to gun violence--which claims tens of thousands of U.S. lives each year and is so frequent that only the most horrific mass shootings make national headlines--if they saw what she has seen so many times.
"I think the citizens need to see the destruction of what these military-style weapons do, and that would be pictures," Goldberg told NPR earlier this week. "And I don't say that lightly. I don't say that with any disrespect, but I'm desperate. All the trauma surgeons need this to stop."
"I just cannot believe that Americans in this country would see what these weapons do to our children, our teachers, our community, and that they would stand by and do nothing," she continued.
"Emmett Till's mom had an open casket, and I'm sure that had some impact on the civil rights movement," Goldberg added. "The napalm girl--you know, those images, brought into our homes during the Vietnam War, I think significantly made change."
In an op-ed published by Common Dreams on Wednesday, attorney and social justice activist Mitchell Zimmerman contended that "there is no Second Amendment right to protection from reality."
Noting that "a number of states force women exercising their constitutional right to abortion to look at fetal sonograms before ending their pregnancy," Zimmerman asks, "What if states required anyone who wants to buy an assault rifle, or other semi-automatic weapons, to first see photos or films that show what such weapons do to human bodies?"
"Perhaps some would reconsider whether they really need this kind of weapon to hunt or engage in target shooting," he said.
The debate is not a new one. After 26 students and staff were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore asserted that the entire country was complicit in the slaughter due to gun control inaction.
"That is why we must look at the pictures of the 20 dead children laying with what's left of their bodies on the classroom floor," the Bowling for Columbine director said. "Then nothing about guns in this country will ever be the same again."
Moore's remarks sparked widespread outrage.
"There is no Second Amendment right to protection from reality."
"We want to remember the little angels as they were, with their happy expressions and faces and you want to think of the teachers trying to hold them safe and not to see the pictures of their bodies," said the leader of a Newtown parents group who called Moore's idea "a horrendous offense to the families."
Lenny Pozner told The New York Times that after his six-year-old son Noah died at Sandy Hook, he considered showing the world photos of what a 5.56mm x 45mm NATO-spec bullet--the type fired by an AR-15--does to a child's body. Made for use in war, such bullets can decapitate a person or leave a body looking "like a grenade went off" inside it, according to trauma surgeon Peter Rhee.
Pozner's first thought was, "It would move some people, change some minds." His next thought, however, was, "Not my kid."
Others believe that those puhsing for making such images public are mistaken and that many people--especially those so steeped in their sacrosanct right to bear arms that no number of dead children would move them--would "stand by and do nothing," as MSNBC opinion columnist Michael A. Cohen wrote on Thursday.
"To be an advocate of near-unfettered access to firearms means shutting out all the evidence that one's selfish demand for practically limitless gun rights is responsible for so much needless suffering," he continued. "It means looking at Robb Elementary, Sandy Hook, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, or countless other tragedies and deciding that the fetishization of steel and bullets plays no role whatsoever."
"Making public the pictures of the children slaughtered at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School would likely do little to change minds or seriously reshape the debate about guns in America," Cohen conluded. "But allowing people to see such pictures would increase the national trauma around gun violence."
"It's something you never want to see and it's something you don't, you cannot, prepare for. It's a picture that's going to stay in my head forever, and that's where I'd like for it to stay."
Some proponents of showing photos argue that it could come down to the way in which the images are displayed.
"I can imagine some pictures that could be made without dehumanizing the victims that speak to the story of the AR-15, which is a story that has not been seen or fully told," Nina Berman, a documentary photographer, filmmaker, and Columbia journalism professor, told the Times.
"For a culture so steeped in violence, we spend a lot of time preventing anyone from actually seeing that violence," she said. "Something else is going on here, and I'm not sure it's just that we're trying to be sensitive."
There is also the very real possibility that ordinary people viewing images of extraordinary carnage could be traumatized, perhaps even forever. Uvalde coroner Eulalio "Lalo" Diaz, Jr. had the grisly task of idenfitying victims of the Robb Elementary School massacre.
"It's something you never want to see and it's something you don't, you cannot, prepare for," he said of the crime scene. "It's a picture that's going to stay in my head forever, and that's where I'd like for it to stay."
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Diplomacy, Not Bombs: Anti-War Voices Say Afghanistan Shows Need to Stop Any Further March to War
"The only thing that we 'accomplished' by going into... Afghanistan was to put trillions of taxpayer dollars into the military-industrial complex and destroy millions of lives."
Aug 16, 2021
Amid the lightning collapse of Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government and the all-but-certain return of Taliban rule, anti-war activists on Monday stressed that diplomacy, not bombs or the military-industrial complex, is the only path to lasting peace.
"Nearly two decades of military intervention and occupation did not build lasting peace. No number of bombs dropped, no length of time occupied, would have."
--Stephen Miles, Win Without War
The stunning but predictable Taliban reconquest of Afghanistan marks the end of the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war that cost the lives of more than 200,000 Afghans, displaced over five million more, and diverted at least $2 trillion in American taxpayer funds that progressive critics said could have been better spent on programs of domestic and international social uplift and well-being.
As the war ends where it began--with the Taliban in control of most of Afghanistan--the prospect of the country becoming a so-called "failed state" and haven for militant groups like al-Qaeda has prompted numerous observers to speculate that U.S. troops will return, and not just in the "over-the-horizon" operational capacity touted by President Joe Biden and Pentagon brass.
Peace advocates, however, emphasized the imperative to pursue diplomatic over military solutions to regional problems, with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)--the only member of Congress to vote against the 2001 authorization for the invasion of Afghanistan and so-called War on Terror--asserting that "there has never been, and will never be, a U.S. military solution in Afghanistan."
\u201cThis image should be seared into our minds as a message to stop going into other countries.\u201d— Ariel Gold \u05d0\u05e8\u05d9\u05d0\u05dc \u2721\ufe0f\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a (@Ariel Gold \u05d0\u05e8\u05d9\u05d0\u05dc \u2721\ufe0f\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\udd4a) 1629110233
Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, said in a weekend statement that "the United States can best help mitigate violence today not with bombs, but with diplomacy, and by supporting efforts to build peace."
"Nearly two decades of military intervention and occupation did not build lasting peace," said Miles. "No number of bombs dropped, no length of time occupied, would have."
"Our responsibility toward Afghanistan does not end with the end of our military occupation," Miles added. "Just the opposite: Only now that we may finally recognize the failure of the war-first approach can we fully start down the long, difficult path of peace."
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group CodePink, demanded accountability for "those responsible for 20 years of epic failure," while warning that "now we have to stop the military-industrial complex from dragging us into new wars."
\u201cA shout out to all who joined CODEPINK and other peace groups to oppose the invasion of Afghanistan. From Bush to Obama, we called for our troops to come home. Now we have to stop the military-industrial complex from dragging us into new wars. #DefundThePentagon\u201d— Medea Benjamin (@Medea Benjamin) 1629064083
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore echoed Benjamin's call to slash U.S. military spending, tweeting: "Defund the military-industrial complex (increase funding for veterans!), defund the NSA, defund Homeland Security."
Warren Gunnels, staff director for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), argued that "the only thing that we 'accomplished' by going into Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan was to put trillions of taxpayer dollars into the military-industrial complex and destroy millions of lives--period, full stop."
"It's time to stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again," Gunnels asserted.
\u201cThe U.S. war on Afghanistan wasn't "pointless", it enriched precisely who it was meant to. \n\nCompanies that profit from war get richer as the world burns. Don't forget this as politicians & weapons lobbyists try to justify the next war for "humanitarian" concerns! #DivestFromWar\u201d— CODEPINK (@CODEPINK) 1629132414
\u201cNow would be a good time to cut America's $740,000,000,000 defense budget and reinvest funding in human needs.\u201d— Public Citizen (@Public Citizen) 1629134631
Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director of the racial and economic justice group Project South, tweeted that it "should be clear by this point that the only ones who benefited from the U.S. war on Afghanistan were war-profiteering politicians and corporations while countless lives were destroyed."
"Remember this," added Shahshahani, "the next time the U.S. war machine is pushing for yet another invasion."
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'About Damn Time': Cautious Optimism as Imminent Charges Reported for Michigan Ex-Officials Over Flint Water Crisis
"Justice for Flint is long overdue," said Rep. Jamaal Bowman. "But we need... reparations and long-term support for the kids and families who were irreparably harmed by racism and greed."
Jan 11, 2021
Clean water and human rights advocates responded with cautious optimism to a Tuesday Associated Press report claiming that Michigan's attorney general is preparing to indict former Gov. Rick Snyder and other ex-officials in connection with the deadly poisoning of Flint's drinking water.
The AP report, which cites "two people with knowledge of the planned prosecution," states that the office of Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) has informed lawyers for Synder (R), former state health director Nick Lyon, and others allegedly responsible for the ongoing lead contamination crisis in the largely impoverished, predominantly Black city of 101,000 residents that their clients can expect to be summoned to court soon.
"The very fact that people are being held accountable is an amazing feat. But when people's lives have been lost and children have been severely hurt, it doesn't seem like enough."
--LeeAnne Walters,
Activist and Flint mother
The precise nature of the charges against the former officials was not disclosed. Courtney Covington Watkins, a spokesperson for Nessel's office, told the AP that investigators are "working diligently" and "will share more as soon as we're in a position to do so."
In Michigan and across the nation, progressive response to the impending indictments was overwhelmingly upbeat; however, many observers said there was still a long way to go until justice is achieved.
LeeAnne Walters, a local mother of four who in 2018 was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in exposing the crisis, said she would like to know more about the charges against the former officials.
"The very fact that people are being held accountable is an amazing feat," Walters told the AP. "But when people's lives have been lost and children have been severely hurt, it doesn't seem like enough."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted that "the justice train is coming through."
Lonnie Scott, executive director of the advocacy group Progress Michigan, said in a statement: "It's about damn time. Justice for the people of Flint is long overdue."
\u201cIt\u2019s 2021. \nMichigan is finally charging ex governor Snyder for his role in the poisoning of my entire city. \nFlint is still not fixed. \n\nhttps://t.co/CZKtlBSIQ6\u201d— Mari Copeny (@Mari Copeny) 1610480868
\u201cOMG.This just crossed AP wire. Our demands met! MI Governor who took over Flint, replaced mayor w/his lackey, told lackey to make cuts, so he took the city off the pure water of Lake Huron & made Flint ppl drink out of the dirty Flint River. 10K+ kids now with perm brain damage!\u201d— Michael Moore (@Michael Moore) 1610481525
\u201cIt\u2019s about damn time. Justice for Flint is long overdue. But we need more than accountability \u2014 we need reparations and long-term support for the kids and families who were irreparably harmed by racism and greed.\u201d— Jamaal Bowman Ed.D (@Jamaal Bowman Ed.D) 1610486131
Snyder was governor when the unelected emergency managers he appointed to run the city made the cost-cutting decision to switch Flint's water supply to the Flint River, whose waters were highly corrosive and leaked lead from aging pipes into thousands of homes.
There were early signs of trouble in August 2014, when residents were told to boil their tap water, which was found to contain unsafe levels of fecal coliform bacteria.
Months later, residents began complaining that their tap water smelled and tasted foul, and that many children were becoming sick after drinking it. However, officials told them that everything was fine and that the water was safe to drink.
It later emerged that Veolia, the private company hired to deal with the bacterial contamination, knew about the lead contamination as early as February 2015, but balked at informing government officials.
In 2016, Snyder and Lyon publicly disclosed the poisoning, although subsequent investigation has shown that they knew about the problem much earlier than that.
An outbreak of Legionaires' disease in 2014 and 2015 linked to the water crisis officially killed a dozen people, although an investigation found that the actual death toll may have been as much as 10 times higher.
In 2017, Lyon and four other officials were charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Legionnaires' outbreak. However, in 2019 Nessel's office dropped the charges, while promising a new investigation.
Meanwhile, the people of Flint--already one of the most economically depressed cities in the nation--continued to suffer from exposure to the neurotoxin. Their pain was often ignored or dismissed.
In a stunning display of gaslighting during a May 2016 visit decried by filmmaker and Flint native Michael Moore as "too little, too late," then-President Barack Obama affected a cough, asked for water, and then gingerly sipped from a glass of filtered Flint water while lecturing his audience about how everyone over a certain age "got some lead in your system when you were growing up."
Children's brains are especially susceptible to damage from lead. As many as 26,000 Flint children have been poisoned, including 9,000 under the age of 6. While lead poisoning can be avoided, it cannot be reversed, and thousands of Flint children suffer from health and behavioral problems resulting from their exposure.
The poisoning is also blamed for a host of other health problems endured by Flint residents, including lower fertility and higher fetal mortality rates.
Last August--six years after the crisis began--Michigan officials announced a $600 million settlement following 18 months of negotiations that will fund public health and other needs related to the contamination.
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