MAN BITES TOWN

Regarding “Operation Desert Tube,” by Harry Shearer: I am a 24-year-old college student, and like most of my peers, I consider myself to be video literate. My generation has cut its teeth on sound bites, live remotes, satellite broadcasts and the 15-second pitch. We are connoisseurs of the visual medium, accustomed to instant gratification and TV reality. Yet jaded as I am, it still shocked me to see CNN marketing the Gulf War like a military version of the Super Bowl--among the kettle-drum theme music, the graphic logos and all the color commentators, it was hard to tell the difference.

The Gulf War was not Monday Night Football, and it trivialized human death and suffering to treat it as such. Our society must prevent this kind of dehumanization; if we don’t, not only will we fail to usher in the end of humanity’s dark rooms, as Shearer suggests, we also run the risk of letting the faint glow of the television distract us from ever turning the lights on.

LISA K. O’MEARA

Valencia