A story in Saturday’s paper began with this paragraph:
In a quiet, tree-lined field behind the Kansas Humane Society on Southeast Boulevard, 1,500 souls are laid to rest.
I thinks it’s a nice sentence, but it stirred up controversy in the story’s comments section at Kansas.com.
That wasn’t the only place it did.
Courtesy of
Buycostumes.com.
When the story arrived on the copy desk Friday night, we also took on the question “Do pets have souls?†The debate was much like what you can find online, only without the vitriol or questions of each other’s intelligence or parentage.
It was a great example of one of the reasons I love The Eagle’s copy desk so much. The members of the desk weren’t extruded from the same die. There are 10 of us, and on any given issue you’re going to find 10 opinions and little reluctance to make them known. From the war on terrorism to hyphenating compound modifiers, we disagree. The key to our debates, though, is that we keep it civil. Sure, we occasionally (OK, often) shoot from the lip, but it’s good natured and we respect each other and strive to appreciate views different than our own.
That respect for diversity of thought makes working here — and makes the paper itself — a much richer experience.
As for do pets have souls? We decided that it wasn’t our place to settle that thorny question. We took the position that the sentence can be taken literally or viewed as poetic license.
Now, debate amongst yourselves.
– Michael