Tragedies less tragic

On facebook status updates noting the tragedy of the Kansas abortion doctor's slaying 

the slaying of the abortion doc, dr tiller, reminded me of an email the day after 911, from my supervising attorney when i interned at the DC Public Defender:

"Yesterday was truly a black day. Along with all the terrorist tragedies, our client Jermaine Jackson died. He was shot early Saturday and they pulled the plugs yesterday. His stepdad thinks it was a robbery gone bad.I feel very bad for his family."

I've kept this email all these years. I remember thinking - the individual mothers of sons whose lives are taken in the american ghetto every day grieve no less than the individual mothers and families of those who lost their lives to terrorist attack.

Here's my question to you, now -

Is a tragedy less tragic because there isn't a political spin to it?

These tragedies are telling, not only in each respective story in and of itself, but also of our character as a people - through those whom we choose to remember, and also those whom we choose to ignore.

Sean Taylor. Heath Ledger. Jermaine Jackson.


Its been said, that "a people is judged not by the successful whom we celebrate but by those along the fault lines for whom we care."