corrente

Turns out her son is wants to join the Marines.

"I know how she felt about it — she's a mother who has lost a kid," [Will] Taylor, [Tami Silicio's son] said from the Everett home he shares with his mother when she is not working abroad. "I don't know if she meant for things to blow up like it has, though."

The picture hasn't dissuaded Taylor from his plan to join the Marines in September.

"I've been planning to go into the Marines for a long time," he said. "I know she (Silicio) will be proud of me for going in."

Tami Silicio's sister Toni Silicio Prebezac, 52, said Tami sometimes sent e-mails about her experiences working in Kuwait.

"(Tami, 50,) said she would say prayers over the coffins. It was like the airplane was a church," said Prebezac, of Edmonds, as she and her family hurriedly prepared to leave for New York. "It was like she was a mom to these fallen boys."
(via Seattle Times)

Funny how people are just people, isn't it? How they don't necessarily fit into neat categories.

Anyhow, it's wrong for the administration to hide the photos. It's even worse for them to prate about privacy when it's clearly just a PR move. What the Pentagon's PR flacks say:

"Quite frankly, we don't want the remains of our servicemembers who have made the ultimate sacrifice to be the subject of any kind of attention that is unwarranted or undignified," said John Molino, a deputy undersecretary of defense.
(via Seattle Times)

Or "any attention" whatever, eh?

The problem with hiding the photos, beyond the problem that it hides the true costs of the war, is that is somehow implies that the troops are separate and apart from the American people themselves. Molino says "our servicemembers." No, Mr. Molino, they are our servicemembers. Please don't hide them.