WAR DEAD AND COLLEGE MATH II
Since I last posted on the 15th, the death count for American soldiers has reached 70 for this month, and 400 hundred have been wounded.
• Seventy soldiers is three shy of the total of my composition students. So if these soldiers were my students, and since I have three classes of composition, only one student in each class would have survived the first half of October, and thirteen classrooms of students (which is one floor in my building) would have been wounded--and some would not survive their wounds.
• Twenty-three soldiers have died since my posting on October 15th. This is an average of seven soldiers a day over the past three days. Twenty-three soldiers would be 74% of my Literature course. And since the literature course has 5 groups of five and 1 group of six, totaling 31 students, if these soldiers were my students, this would mean that 4 of the six groups would be casualties, and one additional group would lose 3 of its members. And this in three days.
These were individuals with families, and dreams, loves and losses, favorite TV shows and iPod collections, cats and dogs, and they are gone in three short days.
• • •The death count for Iraqis since October 15th has not been posted. They are lost to us, and have not even earned a number. But their families know that a son or daughter, or mother or father, niece or nephew will not break fast with them this Ramadan. . . or any other.
Since I last posted on the 15th, the death count for American soldiers has reached 70 for this month, and 400 hundred have been wounded.
• Seventy soldiers is three shy of the total of my composition students. So if these soldiers were my students, and since I have three classes of composition, only one student in each class would have survived the first half of October, and thirteen classrooms of students (which is one floor in my building) would have been wounded--and some would not survive their wounds.
• Twenty-three soldiers have died since my posting on October 15th. This is an average of seven soldiers a day over the past three days. Twenty-three soldiers would be 74% of my Literature course. And since the literature course has 5 groups of five and 1 group of six, totaling 31 students, if these soldiers were my students, this would mean that 4 of the six groups would be casualties, and one additional group would lose 3 of its members. And this in three days.
These were individuals with families, and dreams, loves and losses, favorite TV shows and iPod collections, cats and dogs, and they are gone in three short days.
• • •The death count for Iraqis since October 15th has not been posted. They are lost to us, and have not even earned a number. But their families know that a son or daughter, or mother or father, niece or nephew will not break fast with them this Ramadan. . . or any other.
posted by mariestaad at 7:58 PM
3 Comments:
For me All hope is lost.
Z
That is a powerful way to bring the realities of this war to heart. There is a war going on and people are dying. The Commander in Cheif and his brood seem to be playing school-yard bullies. Who will stop them? How many lives will it take to satisfy their hostility and anger? It baffles me that this can go on and even more so that no one can stop it.
anonymous Z
Hope is the only thing we can cling to. It isn't a delusion, it's a wish that has some power. Without hope, humanity cannot survive. I worry that this notion seems too Polley-Annish. I read Sartre's "The Plague," and I realized it's only when reality trumps ideology that hope has a chance. So far, ideology rules the day: but those that the gods raise up are often those that the gods destroy. Hubris has a short shelf life.
Anonymous II, thank you for your nice comments. I'm trying to give some scale to the mounting deathtoll of Americans and Iraqis. It is hard for Americans, especially younger Americans, to grasp because it is "over there." I'm trying to install a bit of "over there" here.
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