Tragedy

[bcholmes]

If I controlled the universe, tragedy would be measured differently. Public response to Nelia Laroza's death, for example, would far exceed public reaction to Holly Jones' death.

Entire communities would mobilize around efforts to ensure that health care is a safe profession. The government would be pressured to change law, change budgets, (change premiers ferchrissakes), to make hospitals better. People would demand inquiries into the history of health care underfunding.

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Color me working too hard recently to keep up with the news, but the two names mean nothing to me.

blame location

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Holly Jones was a little girl who was molested and murdered. As always happens in such cases, the public are screaming for changes in how the law treats people convicted of crimes against children.

Nelia Laroza was a nurse who recently died of SARS, the only person in the health care profession to do so.

[david365.livejournal.com]

Holly Jones was the young girl who was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered/dismembered in Toronto within the space of 18hrs near the beginning of June.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Both are Toronto-specific.

Holly Jones was a 10 year-old girl who disappeared while walking home not too far from where I live. Her remains were found in two different locations in Toronto.

Her death was much more violent than Toronto is accustomed to. The case has prompted a lot of renewed interest in, for example, keeping lists of known sex offenders, and Holly's neighbourhood has mobilized to form street patrols.

Nelia Laroza was the first Toronto health care worker to die from SARS.