Every Minute, Without Fail, Another Ding.

Here is a write-up of a rather beautiful anti-war-vigil-of-one in Chicago:

He considered using a foghorn but decided on a bell because of its simplicity.

A solitary ding every minute for more than 26 hours, one ring for each of the 1,594 U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq.

“This is kind of my solidarity, to say I’m with [the soldiers],” said Scott Blackburn, 34, of Chicago, who started his anti-war vigil at 8 a.m. Friday on a wooden seat near Water Tower Place, and calmly rang his bell, day and night, until 10:34 a.m. Saturday.

“I’m just trying to give people the idea, without shoving it down their throats, that there are too many people dying,” said Blackburn, a part-time Web designer. “I just kind of got fed up with it.”

And so he sat there through the wee hours of the morning, through intermittent rain showers, through catcalls from drunks. He sat there while passersby patted him on the back, gave him nods of approval or shouted derogatory comments.

Every minute, without fail, another ding.

If we take the minimum estimate at Iraq Body Count, 21,523, Scott Blackburn would have been dinging his bell once each minute for 14.94 days, rather than for one day plus a few hours. 

Or, we can use the estimated number of civilians who have probably died as direct or indirect consequences of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, based on the Lancet study: 100,000.  Add on the deaths of American troops, 1,594, and you will be ringing a bell once a minute for 70.55 days.

Then, we can add on the 500,000 or so children who died as a result of U.S. sponsored sanctions under Clinton's watch.  We'll be ringing that bell every minute for 417.77 days -- more than a year. 

I could go on, but you get the picture.  "Too many people dying," indeed.   

Update:  I did the above arithmetic last night, during particularly tired-brain time.  Have not checked my calculations, so  if  I  have made errors, then, well, you still get the point.