Saturday, July 21, 2007

3 x 10n

It isn't strictly equitable to only quote songs from one side of the American Civil War, so here are a few lines from 'Oh I'm a Good Old Rebel':

Three hundred thousand Yankees lie dead in southern dust
We got three hundred thousand before they conquered us
They died of southern fever and southern steel and shot
I wish there were three million instead of what we got


The 1860 census for the whole United States estimated the population at a little over 30,000,000.

Today, it is just over 300,000,000.

American war deaths in Iraq are just over 3000.

This is very sad for them and for their families, but it is no excuse for war weariness in a superpower. At the same level of conflict, for instance, it would take over thirty years for one person from our local government area to be killed. Our village is not the largest population centre in our local government area. It is probably the third, and it would have been about the same a hundred years ago. There is an avenue of seventeen trees along the street in our village, one for each local man who did not come back from the 1914-1918 war.

This is the third anniversary of the Accidental Blog.

1 comment:

Dr Clam said...

During my news blackout in November-January 2008-2009 I missed the death of a gentleman in action in Afghanistan from our local government area.