Why?

Why, why, why do the newspapers insist on running huge, garish, unavoidable pictures of the U.S. hostages in Iraq on their covers? I'm speaking here primarily of today's issue of the Red Eye. I was having a perfectly pleasant morning walking east on Chicago Avenue toward the office when I happened to glance at one of those ugly red paper machines and see the image of Jack Hensley, blindfolded, trapped behind the glass door. Sure, this probably sounds like I'm ostriching myself away from current events, and, honestly . . . that comment probably wouldn't be completely unfounded. It just depresses the fuck out of me. I know enough of what's going on to be informed; I don't need it shoved in my face at 8:30 in the morning. If I felt the need to see the digital photos, I could have Googled that shit. Don't force it on me. Don't turn it into something to be consumed and then discarded, like Britney Spears's wedding photos. And it's not just the media's use and abuse of those images; it's the actual reality behind the photos that really depresses me. The hatred, the violence, the capacity for true evil in the hearts of human beings. I don't care what the fuck Hensley was doing there, and this is certainly not xenophobia speaking. Sure, there are all kinds of extenuating circumstances involved in that situation, but the fact is that we are talking about torture and beheading. It's just so, so sick, so sad.