[WikiEN-l] Human dignity

[Jimmy Wales]

Stephen Bain wrote:
> On 7/15/06, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
>> I don't even see what's so undignified about this particular incident
>> that anyone would argue it on that basis in the first place. Everyone
>> does boneheaded things from time to time.
> 
> This particular incident may only be embarrassing; what is undignified
> is AP's reportage using a full name. What would likewise be
> undignified would be the immortalisation of this in a biography,
> forever linking this person's name with this event and this event
> alone (there is no other biographical information available), as if
> that was the sum total of their life.

Exactly.  Perhaps I am surprisingly old-fashioned, but it seems to me
that the news reporting in this case would have been _better_ had they
simply used initials or some other literary device.

For me, the amusement at the cute story (woman calls 911 to ask for a
date) was seriously impaired by my distaste for the fact that this poor
woman's name was being brought into the matter globally and on the
Internet and against her will, in a way that makes it somewhat likely
that future googling on her name for the next 30 years will bring this
incident, and only this incident, to the forefront.

--Jimbo