What a shame...

"Faces of the Dead" is providing America with a strong message.  The idea that this picture is trying to get across is the statistics we here on the news are not just numbers, but they are people.  Any given person in that block is a brother, sister, aunt, uncle, mother, father, cousin, friend, or even just an acquaintance.  Every picture is proof that these people had lives and loved ones and hobbies and jobs.  The title is proving this point by contradicting the idea.  These are not just faces of the "dead;" they are faces of individuals who were killed just doing what they had to do.  The only time this is contradicted is the blank pictures of the recently deceased.  These pictures, no matter how powerful, are just the outline of a person and that doesn't connect a lost life to an actual person.  These soldiers were fighting a war, but I think we are the individuals struggling against guilt.  All these men and women were killed and we are home complaining about trivial things like the weather or the fact that there is nothing good on TV.  The message from the picture is telling us as Americans to be grateful for what we have because, just like the faces of the fallen, we are just ordinary people who could be in the soldiers' shoes.  They are people who happen to be risking their lives everyday and some loose the game.  The tricks in this picture are very important because the one larger block connects all of the fallen.  They were all in the same situation with the same fears and challenges.  Every person in the block is connected to another.  I thought that the faces of the recently fallen being blank squares was a very powerful way to convey the way Americans think or the way the news reports the information.  This reminds me of the movie "Jar Head" because that movie is about a group of people going through the same things at the same time.  There were people in that movie killed and the audience could really see the reaction of his friends and the recognition of the life lost.  They were/are not just pictures to each other; they are friends.  The reaction I had to this piece is shameful.  I am embarrassed not only for me as a person, but for us as a country to forget that these people are people with lives and loved ones, not just numbers or statistics.  I think this got the message across very well.