It's got a bitter taste.

The whole world seems to have heard about the collapse of the 35W bridge here in Minneapolis yesterday evening. Thank you for all your messages of concern - it's a nice feeling to know there are people checking up on us, even as far away as the UK and Australia. News travels far these days. We were downtown, having just picked Ozayr up from work at 5:45... we must have been crossing the 122 bridge past the Metrodome when the 35W fell. Twisted and crumbled and fell, just like that. It all seems incredibly fast and random - the wrong time and place vs. the right ones. But there you go... we were on the right side of coin this time, alhamdulillah.

There are 4 people that are confirmed dead. I am really sorry for them and their families. While it is most definitely sad and senseless, how often do we spare a thought for other tragedies around the world, that aren't in our backyard? What would the Iraqis think, if they tuned in to the constant CNN coverage of our local tragedy? Four people dead. FOUR? The current civilian death toll in Iraq since the beginning of the war is over 68 THOUSAND people. I bet there is more than one destroyed bridge or bomb-blasted building in Baghdad. And they get barely a blip in the news, or a daily thought to their suffering. Not enough people are asking WHY we let that happen, but we are outraged when a few of our own die unjustly. It's almost as if the news coverage has moved on... Iraq may be old news, but the war is still going on. Guantanamo is still running (where there are still "enemy combatants" from Afghanistan that have not yet received a TRIAL). People in Iraq are walking by the tanks and rubble on their way to school and work. Carrying on with their everyday lives. But here we are at a standstill for the 35W.

I'm not saying that it's not sad. It is. It's wrong and senseless that 4 people died just trying to get home from work. But if 4 people is tragic, what is 68,000? How can we feel anguish over 4 deaths we could not have prevented, but be okay with 68,000 that we could have stopped? It's just sad. And senseless.