The death of one is a tragedy/The death of a million is just a statistic

[jedusor]

My stepdad had a letter to the editor printed in the Kansas City Star a couple of days ago. It's the fourth one down on that page, but it was the first one in newsprint. I think he made an excellent point about the public reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings. We all pay attention when the murder happens here in America.

Comments

[cazique.livejournal.com]

great letter. I think the point would have been made even better if he hadn't made it an anti-bush letter and left it as a comment just on the war, but that's just me (and i'm a big anti-bushie)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Subtlety isn't exactly his strong point, though.

[cometcrazie113.livejournal.com]

its a good point. similiarly, thousands die each day of preventable diseases/starvation/etc in africa. or cigarettes or car wrecks. its only the media who decide which deaths are tragedies.

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

Very cool that that was printed. I agree with Caz's point, and agree even more strongly with your assessment of Bill's subtlety. :-)

Actually, he understated the case: the U.S. population is about 12 times that of Iraq. So we should be imagining a *dozen* Virginia Tech shootings every day.