The Disappearing Dead

When I first saw the post in Daily Kos that although seven soldiers -- later upped to nine -- had been killed in Iraq on Friday, the poster "saw NOTHING about this on any of the news reports Friday evening," I thought surely she must be mistaken. With the US death count heading toward 2,000 (1,953 as of Friday), is the death of yet another American in Iraq now a non-news event?

Apparently.

Oh, it's still local news. Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick Kenny, one of those killed (actually on Thursday), was from here, and his passing was suitably recorded on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Three Marines in green uniforms banged on the Kenny family's front door at 1:23 a.m. yesterday to break the news. Chuck Kenny said he knew as soon as he opened the door that his only son was dead.

"Now the family name won't go on. That's it," Chuck Kenny said yesterday afternoon between hugs with friends and family members who streamed into his home.

Patrick was so gung-ho about the Marines that he skipped his high school graduation ceremony. "School administrators handed him his diploma a few days early so he could leave for Marine boot camp as soon as he finished his last class," the PG reports. His example inspired his younger sister to also join the Marines. Patrick is remembered as a natural leader. On his high school football team, "The team captain as a senior, he made a lasting impression by showing interest in players nobody else seemed to notice."

But his death didn't get much notice outside what could be called local news: a handful of Pennsylvania news outlets and an AP wire blurb that's now making the rounds. Checking some of the other names on this month's list of casualties -- 23 so far -- shows a similar pattern. War casualties no longer rate high on the news chart. It's not a matter of being Republican or Democrat to take notice of the young people dying for this country. Attention must be paid.