Our thoughts, sympathy, and condolences at SFist go out to the family, friends, and coworkers of James Kim.

We weren't the only ones following the story -- SFGate reports that the story has driven over 2 million additional hits to their website over the last few days, and after the news of James Kim's death was announced, they were receiving 3300 page views a minute. Other online news outlets reported similar spikes. Something about the story hit everyone hard.

As SFGate editor Vlae Kershner says:

... We've had few stories in the history of SFGate that have attained this level of reader interest, which we can measure, and it's been building day by day. Several elements -- a local connection, a young family, hope alternating with fear for a period of days, empathy with a situation that could occur to many people -- that make for a human interest story are present.

Maybe it's race, maybe it's class, maybe it was the two adorable kids. Maybe it's Noe Valley, maybe it's the boutiques, maybe it's the CNET gadgets. And sure, the media and people in general should pay more attention to stories of suffering everywhere, and it's true that certain people who should get attention don't.

But that doesn't mean that the Kims' story didn't have resonance in and of itself that made it worthy of news coverage, or that by caring about this family and this story, you don't care about anyone else. Does it?