St. Petersburg Times Responds With Moving Obit After Insensitive Comments Mar Death Notice

Sometimes, the smallest lines defended by journalists are among the most important ones. Properly blowing up on the Internet today -- Choire Sicha was among the first to flag it from Metafilter -- is an obituary of Neil Alan Smith, written by Andrew Meacham of the St. Petersburg Times.

The salient section is this:

About 11 p.m. Sept. 12, a car struck Neil Alan Smith and threw him off his bicycle on Fourth Street N. The car didn't stop.

Mr. Smith, who was pedaling home from his job as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack, struck his head on a light post.

He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center. He died there six days later. He was 48.

Police have not located the hit-and-run driver.

Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.

Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man's friends and family. Though hardly unusual -- check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy -- this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.

What follows that is excellent, so go read the whole thing.

As the Bible says, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." I seem to remember that the last person who cited that publicly was derided for being an "embarrassment".

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Comments

[Roger Ochs]

03:10 PM on 11/08/2010

Mr Meacham and his paper remind us of the good yhat one righteous person can do. Bravo!

[RevengencerAlf]

02:01 PM on 11/08/2010

This just in, people on the internet are dicks. We don't have to like it, accept it, or even tolerate it, but to act surprised by it is just foolish and isn't going to trick anyone.

[chelledc]

10:06 AM on 11/10/2010

I think people are surprised at how far the cruelty can go. It's kind of like watching the news and hearing about a gruesome killing. You know that people can do terrible things but every once in a while you see one that reminds you just how low the bar can go.

[virtualpicketline]

02:58 PM on 10/03/2010

Comments like the one that was removed remind me of Ebenezer Scrooge's quote regarding the poor from A Christmas Carol, "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

It's sad that we have created a system where large amounts of people resemble Ebenezer Scrooge.

[axt113]

06:38 PM on 10/07/2010

Today they are called conservatives

[margoharris]

12:32 PM on 10/03/2010

There is a devaluing of human life, the individual. We cannot move into a Mad Max future if we are "concerned" about human beings, the environment. The Fat Cats don't just want most of the pie they want the whole pie.

[mamacat]

03:58 AM on 10/03/2010

This story reminds me of the famous author, Eric Hoffer, who supported himself much of his life as a longshoreman. Who would have guessed that while he was toiling away doing physical work, his mind was busy thinking about what it is to be a human in today's world?
How a person supports themself is not the complete definition of who they are. Anyone, regardless of their employment, can live a life that they, their family, and their friends, consider valuable. To not realize that simple truth is very sad.

[ydrittmann]

11:33 PM on 10/02/2010

People who hit cyclists and drive off are better off dead.

[LaPlacaRifa48619]

11:06 PM on 10/02/2010

Folks who mock the death of a man like Neil Allan Smith are nothing more than bullies.
Bullies are nothing more than chicken-bleep yellow cowards with attitude problems.

If you want more proof of such cretinous behavior?
Just read the local "Letters To The Editor" section of the local newspaper (or check out the day's offerings on their website).

If said to the face of the intended victim, such comments are an open-ended, full-tilt-boogie invite to Fist City, after which, if the fool who uttered it is lucky enough, he will spend six months learning about The Joys of Jello!
But in the "anonymous" world of the Internet--they can be made with impunity.

Hell, indeed, does have a place for such people.
They issue you a shovel and tell you to dig downward another level!
What a way to spend the Afterlife!

May Neil Allen find peace in the Afterlife...it's his by merit!
And may we all find the sense to call out people like that "anonymous caller" for what they are...and it's certainly not heroes!
--RKJ

[BlindChance]

10:10 PM on 10/02/2010

That article really moved me. The way we think of our nation's poor is woefully cold and heartless, and ultimately creates an environment that fosters the perpetual existence of poverty. Every year money magazines release a long list of humans naming their "worth" , and I cringe every time I see it. When we put a dollar sign next to a person's name, misappropriating the word "worth" to mean only what a person has in the bank (plus assets, minus debt) we're devaluing the true worth of a human life, which is priceless.

[Caroleeena]

08:43 PM on 10/02/2010

"He lived in a mobile home near the restaurant and paid rent to the owner, Bonnie Schaeffer-Mott. Once, when she feared the power company would shut off the electricity, she asked Mr. Smith for help.

He gave her more than what she had asked to borrow and insisted she take it. "I'll never forget that," said Schaeffer-Mott, 51."

[StPeteDave]

06:43 PM on 10/02/2010

The times does this occasionally, its a nice thing. They did a huge obit for a guy that comitted suicide by cop, you can imagine the comments were just awful. I'm glad they do it and I try to make sure I read them when I do see them. Some of the people they do them for, I think it's probably the only respect they ever got in their lives.

[StPeteDave]

06:41 PM on 10/02/2010

the people that post comments on the st pete times site are for the most part, the meanest, most h8ful that I've ever read. They make the famous usenet tr0lls of old look like little girls. Its an embarassment.

[sassafra]

05:50 PM on 10/02/2010

look at the path many americans are choosing to walk. they say, "cut off unemployment benefits, force thse slackers to work menial jobs". then when they do they are derided, "..better off dead".
yes...vote for a party backed by those who wish you, "...better off dead".

[parlimentMike]

05:34 PM on 10/02/2010

When contributions to the species are tallied, those of dishwashers dwarf those of financiers.

We are very out of balance and we are very distracted away from reality.

[Donald]

04:22 PM on 10/02/2010

This is so depressing. What in the world is with some of these people, who would be so cruel and hideous as to speak so ill of the dead? Is the cloak of anonimity inversely proportional to the level of their own bravery, that they can thereby be inspired to do the very things which would shame their own mothers and grandmothers without fear of embarassment?

[Lexi Suarez]

02:56 PM on 10/02/2010

Very touching article, and one that needed to be written. I sometimes dread the thought of reading comments on articles about someone's death or suffering, there are some seriously insensitive bastages out there in the world.