James Kim

Photo from The New York Times

Recently, the news has been buzzing with stories of James Kim and his tragic death on Mt. Hood after trying to seek help for his family. What surprised me was the amount of attention this incident attracted, especially on the national level.

Call me a hard case, but I do not truly understand why this story deserved such attention. It was sad, I agree, but is it any worse than all the other news we get from Iraq, or even other stories of people getting lost in the woods, or drowning in the rivers? Please say we have grown numb to such stories.

John Wiser told me that this got attention for its status as a human-interest story, but he admitted that perhaps the priorities got misplaced. On the day Kim's body was found, my mother and the carpool seemed to make quite a big deal out of it. Apparently the search had been in the news for a while; I hadn't noticed it.