"Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution -- these can lift at a colossal humbug -- push it a little -- weaken it a little over the course of a century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." -Mark Twain
"The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet."
- Mark Twain
Little known to many Americans is the number of wounded soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of April 5, 2007, according to CNN, 24,476 American soldiers had been wounded in action.
About 2% of all wounded are amputees. According to TIME, on January 12, 2007, the 500th American soldier became an amputee. Nearly a quarter of amputees from 2006 lost more than one limb.
"Sacrifice":
Most Americans do not see--let along know of--these amputees' long road to recovery. For that reason, anyone on the Eastern seaboard should make a trip to 401 Projects Studio in New York City, to see James Nachtwey's new exhibit "Sacrifice." The photos painfully, hauntingly bring home the stories of human pain--and triumph--behind the numbers and statistics (like those I quoted above). According to the New York Times' review of the exhibit, a marine at the opening of the show "said he thought these pictures should be on billboards in Times Square so that everybody would know what's really happening over there, and nobody could miss seeing them."
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