Sunday, April 13, 2008

Tin Ear Mars Memorial

John Lawhorne writes:
ARCADIA -- The community turned out Saturday to say goodbye to one of its favorite children -- Derrick La Shay Turner -- a young man who was killed on his 20th birthday.
The expression is "favorite son." Calling a 20-year-old man a child infantalizes and insults.

Later in the story, the slain man's mother, "distraught and overcome with grief through most of the ceremony, was surrounded by comforters."

In this region, a comforter is a puffy, warm blanket. The distraught mother was surrounded not by blankets but by people offering comfort.

The writer's tin ear mars an article that is sure to be preserved in family scrapbooks for years to come. What a disappointment that John Lawhorne -- or his editors -- could not rise to the occasion.

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