Wednesday, December 19, 2012

HEARTBROKEN

As I watch the news, day after day, the inevitable happens.  On Friday, it was news all day -- no commercials.  By Saturday, the commercials were back.  And today, Wednesday, as we continue to claim we will never forget, the top story was no longer Sandy Hook Elementary School, but the winter storm out west.

I have been struggling with this - how will we remember these people?  Yes, they will never be forgotten by their families, friends, classmates; but what about the rest of us?  One of the ways time heals all wounds is by letting us forget.  In The Fault in our Stars by John Green, one of the characters, Augustus Waters, talks about how there are 7 billion living people and 98 billion dead people.  So if we could each remember 14 people, theoretically the living could remember all of the dead.  He continues that the problem is that we are "disorganized mourners.  So a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare, but no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about."

I know I will have trouble remembering 26 names 10 years from now.  But one name?  Surely I can remember that.  I can remember one person every day.  But how to go from disorganized to organized mourners?  Then it came to me.  There were 26 victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School and there are 26 letters in the alphabet.  If we go in alphabetical order (I am a librarian, after all) by our last names, no one will be forgotten.

So here is your assignment -- remember one name, and pass this list on so that everyone will be remembered.  Of course, you can remember more than just one name.  If you are so inclined I would suggest remembering those people "assigned" to last names that begin with Q, X, Y or Z.  [This list is taken from the Sunday New York Times.}

  • A - Charlotte Bacon, 6
  • B - Daniel Barden, 6
  • C - Rachel Davino, 29
  • D - Olivia Engel, 6
  • E - Josephine Gay, 7
  • F - Ana Marquez-Greene, 6
  • G - Dawn Hochsprung, 47
  • H - Dylan Hockley, 6
  • I - Madeleine Hsu, 6
  • J - Catherine Hubbard, 6
  • K - Chase Kowalski, 7
  • L - Jesse Lewis, 6
  • M - James Mattioli, 6
  • N - Grace McDonnell, 7
  • O - Anne Marie Murphy, 52
  • P - Emilie Parker, 6
  • Q - Jack Pinto, 6
  • R - Noah Pozner, 6
  • S - Caroline Previdi, 6
  • T - Jessica Rekos, 6
  • U - Avielle Richman, 6
  • V - Lauren Rousseau, 30
  • W - Mary Sherlach, 56
  • X - Victoria Soto, 27
  • Y - Benjamin Wheeler, 6
  • Z - Allison Wyatt, 6