We are wired to pay attention to the dramatic and novel. Things that are slow, steady and familiar tend to fade out of our consciousness and concern. This is no where more true than our attitude towards death.

3,000+ died on 9/11 and the country freaked out. The patriot bill was passed, Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded, hundreds of thousands of civilian in the Middle East were killed, our economy was destroyed and “war on terror” hysteria prevailed.

Every year about 50,000 people die on the freeways in car accidents but we keep on driving, 400,000 people die as a result of their use of tobacco products but you can buy ciagarettes in any grocery store, 150,000 died from alcohol related problems but you can by beer in any grocery store, 100,000 people die from doctors mistakes but we still seek medical advice, and so on.

When you add up all the solvable problems that kill Americans, I bet that you would find that we loose 3,000 + EVERY DAY due to causes that could be prevented. And yet, we sink trillions of dollars and thousands of lives into unnecessary and futile wars in the Middle East.

Maybe if we would pay less atention to screaming headlines and more attention to dry statistics, many more lives could be saved.