Had Kennedy lived to withdraw troops from Vietnam, for example, and had a peace agreement been forced on the Israelis and Palestinians by subsequent presidents, the modern landscape would have been vastly altered--another reason we mourn his tragic slaying.
Unlike the tragic JonBenét Ramsey murder case in nearby Boulder, the Balloon Boy matter is vastly less serious and mysterious.
As for police killings, each one is tragic, and each unjustified one is outrageous; police departments in Europe, for instance, are vastly less likely to kill.
An Iranian friend of mine who is a war veteran described the Basiji boy martyrs as having played a tragic but significant role in the war, by providing Iran with a "flesh wall" against Saddam Hussein's vastly superior Western-supplied military technology.
In "A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates" (2003) he delivered a sensitive and powerful portrait of the vastly underappreciated author of "The Easter Parade" and "Revolutionary Road".
Unnamed Democrat is vastly, vastly rich.
