The Life You Save...

RIP Anthony Shadid.

UW Journalism Grad Dead at 43 --
allegedly of asthma attack in Syria.

He leaves behind a wife, and two small children at home.

Sad thing is, he probably had an all inclusive health insurance package with the NYT. Didn't translate to good health, or long life though. Maybe his children will fare better...

Shadid's father, Buddy Shadid, told The Associated Press on Thursday his son had asthma all his life and had medication with him.

"(But) he was walking to the border because it was too dangerous to ride in the car," the father said. "He was walking behind some horses — he's more allergic to those than anything else — and he had an asthma attack."
...
Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, had a wife, Nada Bakri, and a son and a daughter.
...
"At the end of the day, he's my husband, and the thought of going through life without him and raising our children alone is terrible," she said afterward.

Shadid's father, who lives in Oklahoma City, said a colleague tried to revive his son after he was stricken Thursday but couldn't.

"They were in an isolated place. There was no doctor around," Buddy Shadid said. "It took a couple of hours to get him to a hospital in Turkey."

Maybe they ought to reconsider sending parents of young children, especially those in dicey health, into "combat" situations.* No, seriously.

You know, like they do with women in the U.S. military.

Nothing personal, just protecting society's most vulnerable.

Because truth be told? I bet in years to come, the Pulitzer Prize will be cold comfort to two children needlessly growing up without a father.

War is hell, all right, and sometimes, real people pay a price...

Multiply his loss times 100,000, and perhaps you'll begin to get an idea of what America's "wargames" of the past 10 years have cost children and families in the Middle East region...

Violent transformation, and not even for the better necessarily. That's the new American way. *chest beating*

and hey, have you heard the one about the Mormon guy vacationing with his doggie atop the car? ("Stop me if you've heard this one already, Tony..." heh heh.)


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* Isn't it time young Sulzberger venture abroad to cover a grand war or two? No kids yet for the initialed junior, right? I hear Israel is cooking up a grand recipe for disaster -- time to step up and fill some shoes, son?

Speaking of,
the 31-year-old Joseph Kennedy III is ready to step up to to taxpayer troughs to publicly serve himself. No word yet if the media will artificially pump this new candidate based on those ... sexxy bloodlines.