good news

I remember in the days after September 11, when estimates of death tolls reached unimaginable heights. Days later, when it was discovered that "only" approximately 3,000 people had died. We were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The same news is coming out of the Gulf today. The estimation that 10,000 people may have died is not being reassesed. Nobody is now saying how many, but anything less than 10,000 has to be "good" news, right? Hell, if we were still in the days of counting black people as only 3/5 of a person, it wouldn't be a big deal at all, right?