The second of two mentions in this morning's paper

Cullen: 'I want to connect'

Friday, December 22, 2006

	Lynn Cullen Click photo for larger image.

Radio talk show host Lynn Cullen spoke with the Post-Gazette Wednesday about her emotional broadcast last week on the death of her niece Leah Nuetzel's boyfriend, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Clark.
"I think everybody has their job, and you journalists are supposed to remove yourselves emotionally, generally," she said. "I never made much of a journalist because it was very hard for me to do that, and as a talk show host I don't remove myself. I want to connect, intellectually, emotionally and mostly, honestly."
She said she has received nearly a hundred positive emails and letters from folks who listened to her tearful broadcast last week.
As she describes the aftermath of Cpl. Clark's death, her voice trembles as it did that day.
"I talk about this war all the time; I've been opposed to it since day one, since before day one. Then this wonderful, wonderful young man takes me closer to it than I'd ever want to be. It's the most hopeless feeling you can have."
She said what really makes her insane is Pres. Bush's declaration that he sleeps better than people might think, even though the country is at war.
"I feel contempt for him because my sister's not sleeping, my niece is not sleeping. Matt's mother is not sleeping." She said Cpl. Clark, 22, was the only child of a widowed mother. When he had to inform the Army of who should be notified first, Ms. Cullen said he requested that the family priest be the initial recipient of the news.
"He couldn't bear the thought of his mother finding out that her only child was dead from two Marines at her door," Ms. Cullen said.
The family priest was to accompany the Marines to Cpl. Clark's mother's house so that she would have someone she knew, trusted and could turn to for comfort, the talk show host said.
During a brief visit to the States before being sent to Iraq, she said, Cpl. Clark was telling Leah and her mother, Susan, that some people were trying to get out of going. Leah wanted her boyfriend to be among them.
As Ms. Cullen relays the story, Cpl. Clark turned to Leah's mother and said, "Why doesn't your daughter understand that if I could not be trusted to stand by my oath to my country, why then should she expect me to honor my promise to her?"
She said the young Marine, whom she'd never met, seemed to be more thoughtful, sensitive and mature than men twice his age.
"I just feel that we're sacrificing these unbelievably honorable young people to salvage this president's legacy -- or so he thinks," Ms. Cullen said. "His legacy is set in stone, I think."