Another letter of mine, published in the Perspectives section of the Times family of newspapers on June 6, 2004 (so somewhat more than a month after I wrote it). I present it here in the published form rather than the one in which I wrote it (mainly a matter of the editor manipulating paragraph breaks).
Jeff Finder (Apr. 29) wonders about the government's refusal to let us see the coffins containing fallen American soldiers being brought home.
The government, of course, explains that this is due to a wish to prevent intrusions on the privacy of the families of our honored dead. Since a flag-draped coffin is effectively anonymous, this explanation bears less the sweet aroma of reason than the stench of an excuse. One might as well expect the government to be cancelling plans for future censuses in order to avoid intrusion on the privacy of American families. I have not noticed them doing so.
Still, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." So we need not seek consistency in protection of American families among those mighty intellects who today guide our footsteps in war and ... well, war.