All the news (and blogosphere) seems able to talk about today is the fact that the official number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since we went back to war there has reached 4000. There was not one (un)lucky person who tips the scales to a nice, round, reportable number, but 4. And this morning, all I could think was that we seem to be treating these 4, by virtue of not being in the first 3996, as more important.

And yet, this report stood out to me. It’s worth a listen (they didn’t transcribe this one for us). Somehow, this brief snippet seemed, to me, to take into account the human aspect of each of the 4000 (and of the other 85 000):

I wish the names could appear in the corner of everyone’s TV screen as we watch [...] House. Maybe they would slow down, then.

Hear, hear.