Death is a natural part of life; every person and every living creature will die some day. Some die after a long, productive, and satisfying life, and others are cut short before their time.

Every day on planet earth, 29,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Most of these deaths are of preventable. Pneumonia kills millions every year, yet it can be cured with a dollar’s worth of antibiotics. Diarrheal dehydration kills over a million children every year, and most of these lives could be saved if the parents had access to a ten-cent packet of oral rehydration salts and knew the procedure for administering oral rehydration therapy. Tuberculosis kills over two million a year, and is curable with a course of drugs costing just $10.

I hope that the outpouring of compassion for Terri Schiavo will be channeled, or broadcast, to the millions of children in the world living and dying in poverty, whose lives are needlessly snuffed out for want of ten cents’ worth of oral rehydration salts, a dollar’s worth of antibiotics, or a two dollar mosquito net that prevents the spread of malaria during sleep.

May she rest in peace.

James has a link roundup and many of those links are from people who will continue to try to make political hay out of her death.