Yup. Those are good metaphors there. I used the pain metaphor. I
   console myself somewhat that media inflation and overestimation
   of statistics to support a cause that has a financial or
   political support need is commonplace... so I don't always trust
   the numbers.

   That being said, it could be lower, or higher, or possibly
   accurate.

   I don't know the statistic, but I know that at the very moment,
   there are people in the USA that are kidnapped in basements and
   attics and nobody knows or cares about them. I know there's
   children being kept in closets and starved because their parents
   want to focus their attention on their 'normal' children
   instead... the child suffering in the closet has known nothing
   else but starvation and pain until he/she dies a horrible,
   painful death most likely.

   I know there's future artists whose abilities will be snapped
   off suddenly by two sentences spoken by a teacher who thinks
   they're being helpful next Thursday. Probably several thousand
   future creative people whose creativity is crushed in two second
   flat, and all of the creations that will never be made because
   of two sentences spoken.

   I can't not think of all of these things. Then I look at my
   arms. My hands. The computer in front of me. The people I see
   with my eyes. A cat that needs food and is complaining.

   That's all I can do something with right now. I give it my all
   'til I'm dead.