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These stories sound so abstract, and it’s hard to remember that real people suffered a real tragedy. I was visiting my friend at Princeton, when an acquaintance of his remarked that both of her parents were on the yacht. Really brought home how real it all was.

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I don't know... Somebody posting on a message board about the parents of an acquintance of a friend is a lot of steps. I don't think an anecdote that indirect makes the event any more concrete for the reader.

For me it was more of an “oh sh*t, that person had a family.” And I feel like it’s easy for that to get lost when reading about people generally. Especially famous and wealthy people.

Now think of the thousands of people who die each year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea for a better life.

Nice windup but I'll take the bait. It's hardly the same, is it? Doing something known to be very safe versus doing something known to be very dangerous, knowing full well that you're violating the law. What do you propose instead?

I would propose to no let people die on our borders.

Unfortunately our dear "concerned" fellow citizens seem to be having their way.

Right so Mike Lynch was in a huge legal case in the US, and ran a company that was large at least by UK standards, which meant that his action affected thousands of people, making this noteworthy.

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