re not allowing the widow to see the body- mamie till.

[mopinko]

i have posted this in a few replies, but thought it deserved its own thread.

when the body of emmitt till was returned to chicago, it was contained in both a sealed coffin and a locked box.
mamie till demanded that it be opened, and that she see w her own eyes that it was, in fact, her son.
after considerable argument, she took a hammer to the lock and a pry bar to the sealed casket.
her son's face was unrecognizable. see? they said. no! she said. if it is my son, i will know.
she went over his whole body, inch by inch, until she was satisfied that it was actually her son.
this was an act of courage i can scarcely imagine.
the funeral director refused to allow her an open casket funeral. but she persisted. and made history.

had that been my husband in that casket, there is no way in hell i would have accepted that i couldnt see it. none.
i would have demanded an independent autopsy to boot.

it boggles my mind that they would even try to tell her that, let alone succeed. how the hell does the u.s. army bully a gold star widow this way?
wtf is wrong w my country?

[Kaleva]

1. Sometimes the "body" is mostly dirt with small pieces of remains.

Or it could be what is scrapped off a wall.

[linuxman]

11. Yep.

People see too many war movies. There are all manner of things that can happen to a body in combat, and a small amount of those result in a neat little hole and a serene visage. Add 48 hours in the North-African sun along with animals, insects, and natural decomposition and...I can't say I'd feel any better for seeing my loved on like that. Sgt. Johnson is buried. His wife was discouraged from viewing the corpse, but could still have done so. There is no legal device preventing it. I don't see what purpose any of this serves at this point.

[Kaleva]

14. Soldiers not found for a few days in 'Nam sometimes were a mass of maggots

and human ooze by the time their bodies were recovered.

[MichMary]

2. I doubt that they "refused" to allow her to see it

It probably seemed that way, but there is no way they could legally deny her wishes. They probably strongly advised her not to look. And that may have been very wise advice. Some things can never be un-seen. Whatever they did to him could haunt her for the rest of her life.

[niyad]

5. but that should have been HER decision. now, she will always wonder.

[MichMary]

8. Maybe wondering

is better than knowing.

[mopinko]

9. or maybe not.

imho, it is about courage. and the lady seems to have courage.

[linuxman]

12. It was HER decision.

Advising someone against something doesn't take away their choice.

[Achilleaze]

3. What the hell are the republicans hiding this time?

Pissing on truth and reality as usual.

[niyad]

16. KO pointed this out in his latest (kelly and huckabee must resign)

[fallrey]

4. How can she know they have the right person or what happened without seeing remains?

I've been thinking about this. Having been denied my wish to see the body of my sweetheart this last year, I experienced the unresolved grief at not being able to say good-bye directly to him/his body.
In her interview this morning, Mayeshia Johnson stated that she asked to see the body and was denied this request. The reason she was given was the way he was wrapped, presumably to hold together very damaged remains.
Why isn't this her choice?
She wanted to make sure it was him, probably wanted to know what he endured, and she probably wasn't interested in furthering a government cover-up about how he died.
The paternalistic rules about not seeing a damaged body or damaged remains is easily manipulated to serve someone other than the deceased and their loved ones.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. With DNA tests so readily available, there is no other exuse than they're trying to hide

something. Either it isn't him, or in the two days that he went missing, the enemy had a chance to torture him.

[Angry Dragon]

7. my thought was that he was hacked to pieces or

his body was just hideous to look at

[mopinko]

10. so was emmitt till.

i cant imagine how that story ends if mamie had listened to the cops and the undertaker.
it is not their decision. if they told her she couldnt, when in fact she could if she wanted to, they are just paternalistic jerks.

[bdamomma]

15. ISIS was involved

his body was unrecognizable. So again we have this week a POS bully going after a Special Forces pregnant widow..........................how incredibly cruel and insane fucking ass this shell of a man is.

[malaise]

13. I wouldn't have looked but I would have had

a family member who could deal with it verify that it was his body.