Loving all God’s creatures may occur in varying degrees.Comments on the kid “surfin’ the gator” photo today are expected. But think about it. Offer your thoughts on how the kid on the gator is different than your Uncle Hank holding a big mouth bass by the lip for the camera?
The photo captured a slice of Louisiana life. It was a Weegee-like moment and newsworthy. Running it doesn’t mean we promote the behavior. Just because we run a photo of an abandoned building in flames doesn't mean we promote fire as a solution to urban blight.It is what it is: a jarring and conversation-starting image.
As Times writer Alexandyr Kent puts it, "The dead gator offered them a chance to play the brave dragon slayer, and what is more fundamental to our attitudes about the “demons of nature” than that? That the kids celebrate the death, however inadvertently, is to be expected." (Read his blog notes on the same item.)
Okay. Okay. Callous comments and the running of the photo may reflect a greater issue with society and our attitudes. Yes, fishing and some types of hunting might play to the primal parts of our being. But the bigger question looms: Is it a newspaper’s job to filter community morals and attitudes? Or do we seek to reflect what exists as we find it? (Or hide it from review?) People are confronting the issues this raises today.If the kids playing on the gator bothers you, consider the community values on display ...and don't blame the messenger.
Uncle Hank would have this gator over the mantle and the clipping from the paper framed.
