Take a Moment or Two

Unfortunately, my first blog-post will be a sad one. There are so many of us who feel it necessary to make today a day we honor the loss of a hero.

If you live under a rock you may not know that James Kim and his family went missing on 11/25/06. Being in New York its pretty much not news. Its sad, and it bothers me that we are this disconnected from humanity nationwide.

The Kim family was last known to be in the Southern Oregon area travelling by car back home from Portland, OR. Long story short, the weather was below freezing, and witness' put them in a desolate area of Southern OR. They were missing for 9 days when finally Searchers in a helicopter spotted a woman waving an umbrella. It ended up being Kati Kim and her two young daughters. It was later known that two days prior to the recover of Mrs. Kim and the girls James had set out on foot through rough snowy terrain to seek out help. There were people searching for James night and day. James was leaving a trail of clothes and torn pieces of the Oregon map he was carrying. He was found yesterday about noon PST, 5 days after he set out on foot. Sadly James was not found alive.

I do not know James or Kati, yet I feel so connected to them and this horrible, horrible situation. In July I began listening to various Podcast that CNET hosts, Gadgetts, Buzz out Loud and MP3 Insider. James was one of the hosts on MP3 Insider. I got to know James and the other hosts, you learn about their family, you know what kind of cars the drive, you know what their favorite foods are.. You know, the small things you learn about friends when you first meet. Another reason is that I'm originally from San Francisco and have always been in the technology industry. I have been to the CNET building, I have friends at CNET and I at one point walked past the building everyday on my way to work. Lastly, I lived in Grants Pass, OR and Talent, OR for about a year, and I have family who lives there now.

I realize this all doesn't exactly make me family, but so many lives end prematurely and every single time its a terrible thing to go through. We hear about death on the nightly news so often that if we are not directly connected to it we are numb to it. We know its sad, and we know someone or many someones are mourning the death of that person. We probably do too for a split second, then we change the channel and carry on with our lives. That is why I'm writing this.. Death is real this has made me see how fragile life can be. This brave man, healthy, normal, happy man died in the freezing cold in a heroic effort to save his family. I will never forget James Kim, nor will I ever turn the channel and carry on when I hear of an innocent life being taken again.

I apologize for the length of this blog, the others will not be this long, nor will they be about death, this was just necessary.
Take a minute out of your day to lend a thought to the loved ones of James Kim, and Sean Bell (who was shot dead by NYC PD just hours before his wedding).



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