To the editor:
I am going to remember Dylan Butler. I am going to remember Ahmir Jolliff. I will remember the names of all the survivors, Principal Marburger and the others not yet named. I will work hard to learn and remember names — of this horrible tragedy and the ones previous around our nation and, unfortunately, the ones yet to come.
I will remember and speak their names. Not to glorify anything but so that eventually somewhere, sometime, when future turns to history, people will be able to say there was a last time. I will speak with grace, with strength and with hope that being different is no longer something to be feared or not accepted. That mental illness is no longer a scapegoat. That mental health no longer bears a stigma. That there are no longer barriers or fears to accessing help of any kind.
I will remember and speak with fervent prayer that communities will rally around those in need before breaking points are reached instead of waiting until after such terrible events to join in and feel like some sort of hero for pitching in after the fact.
I will speak and remember in hope that we will eventually realize there are many causes leading to these tragedies and stop pretending there is a single solution or a single “someone” or “something” to blame.
I will speak and remember because they all matter. To forget any is to throw away what happened and invite it to continue, if not here then somewhere else. To try to erase the perpetrators is trying to hide away from what happened and is the first step toward forgetting, toward allowing this to happen again.
I will speak and remember. I hope you will remember them, too. I hope you will speak their names with grace, with hope and with the prayer that someday no one else needs to.
Wendy Taylor
Jefferson
