River Forest responds to the death of Anne Smedinghoff

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• Anne Smedinghoff

Our response to some journalism is simply that it is appropriate. For the past few days the sadness of Roger Ebert had screened us from the tragedy of Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old diplomat who died last Saturday in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan. But her memorial service was Tuesday, the press was there, and John Kass’s column began on the front page of the Tribune. Just as that placement felt right, so did the tack Kass took: writing about her as the exceptional Fenwick High School student she’d been just a few years earlier . . .

I’ve written that much and don’t have much more to say. It’ll be a brief post, unlike most I write. It’ll go up on the Reader‘s website in midafternoon. But I’m interrupted by a ringing phone.