In case you missed it

THE EDITORS on the news side of this outfit spend hours every day (and on holidays and weekends) scouring the wire services to publish the most important news that readers need or want to know. They do such a fine job that those of us on the opinion side (and maybe some readers) take them for granted.

Case in point:

This past Wednesday, over on one of the international pages, you might have found this small item in the briefs section: Two Egyptian girls were found beheaded at a camp in northwest Syria that houses tens of thousands of women and children “linked to the Islamic State.”

It’s an awful story. The most important news often is.

Back to the article:

“The bodies of the girls were found in the sewage system of the camp days after they vanished, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said the girls had been beheaded. It was the first such crime in weeks in the facility.” (Emphasis ours.)

The first such crime in weeks! In other words, this isn’t something unusual.

The story explains more: “Such grisly crimes in the camp are usually committed by members of IS sleeper cells, especially against women who resist abiding by the group’s extreme ideology.” Like, for possible examples, wanting to learn to read or walk alone in public?

This is what the rest of the world faces. Let’s remember things like this when somebody explains that cultures are all equal and “right” and “morality” depends on a point of view.

NB: The girls were ages 11 and 13. Another detail the editors over on the other side of the room thought to include. In case you missed it.