To the editor: Most people will remember Phil Donahue for his trailblazing daytime TV talk show, but my meeting with Phil was to honor him, Ellen Spiro and Tomas Young for their seminal antiwar documentary, “Body of War.” In 2007, the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club presented the three of them with awards for political courage. (“Phil Donahue, the pioneering host of long-running daytime talk show ‘Donahue,’ dies at 88,” obituary, Aug. 20)
And courage it was — by Tomas, so critically injured in Iraq just one week after arriving, and his mother, Cathy Smith, who helped him mend after his return home.
Their bond, and the struggles that Tomas faced, paralyzed from the chest down, were so poignantly captured by Ellen and Phil, interspersed with the documenting of politicians so willing to engage in war — a war built on lies.
I doubt anyone can watch “Body of War” and not be left in tears. It should be required watching before any politician so quickly sends our young men and women off to fight.
Alice Lynn, Pacific Palisades
