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They will never rest in peace. Christopher Hitchens recently grabbed me when he spoke of those who would “ventriloquize” the dead for their own purposes. Do you suppose these two girls ever imagined, or wanted, to become icons for emotional manipulation in the service of repression? It’s always tragic, of course, when a life lasts for so many fewer years than it should; sadder still when that loss was both preventable and mostly unmourned.

It isn’t my intent to ventriloquize Yoo Chul-Min, either, but I believe that if you know why this 10 year-old boy died, more like him will not have to share his fate. He was just one of millions, exceptional only for the fact that we know what he looked like and how he died.