Glanced at the news headlines recently and noticed that North Carolina will soon execute the 1000th prisoner since the reinstatement of the death penatly. The prisoner’s name is Kenneth Boyd. He is convicted of murdering his wife and father-in-law in 1988. Real people, real image-bearers of God are involved. Not statistics, not talking points for advocacy groups.
Why is 1000 important? If you are an advocacy group, why weren’t 996, 997, and 998 important cases/individuals?
On October 26th of this year, why was the 2000th death of a US soldiers in Iraq important? Were the mothers of soldiers #1998 and 1999 any better off? The 2000th named death Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas.
Our advocacy obsession with numbers baffles me sometimes. I think it demeans the actual individuals involved and obscures the real events that make people important. These are people made in God’s image, including the forgotten to the outside, world murder victims. I think our debates forget that at times.
Greersights 
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December 1, 2005 at 9:06 pm
rob
I agree with you from the advocacy view. But often when I’m reporting stats on people, I try and round to whole numbers (but be accurate) for communication sake. I think people understand, sometimes, “almost 1000” as opposed to 987.
Just a thought.