Oldest Woman Dies - Can Press Bash U.S. in Report?

In June, we covered the 115th birthday of the world's oldest woman, noting that the occasion was punctuated with a snide remark from a Reuters reporter that ..."Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher, was born in 1890, the year Sioux Indians were massacred by the U.S. military at the Battle of Wounded Knee.", (as if that had anything to do with the story.) Well, today we have some bad news and some good news, but let's help the press report it in a positive tone.

The bad news is that this lady passed away early this morning in her sleep. The director of her retirement home said, "She was very clear mentally right up to the end, but the physical ailments were increasing." May she rest in peace. Now, the good news is that she passed away on the very date in 1645 that "American Indians and the Dutch made a peace treaty at New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam later became known as New York."

So, if the press marked her birth by noting a bad time in Indian relations, it can now mark her passing with good news in Indian relations, in that she passed away on the same date that the Indians and Dutch settlers negotiated peace in their time and for future colonists. It just seems fitting.