What About Them?

Lorraine and Henry Ambrose in Mountain Top, Pennsylvania; Steven Robinson Jr. in Lexington, Kentucky; unnamed in Houston, Texas; Antwan Rutherford in Macon, Georgia; Jonathan Sandoval-Aleman in Long Beach, California; Unnamed in Baltimore, Maryland; Blair C. Ranneberger in Willards, Maryland; Timothy and Susan Adams in Flomaton, Alabama; Unnamed in Phoenix, Arizona; Jeffrey Allen Ramsey Jr. in Salisbury, North Carolina; Callum Braxton Boggs in Afton, Virginia; Unnamed in Springfield, Illinois; Unnamed in Indianapolis, Indiana; Unnamed in Indianapolis, Indiana; Jonathan Cheers in Nashville, Tennessee; Jason Youngblood in Hazlehurst, Mississippi; David Paul Pedan in Jackson, Mississippi; Samuel Julius Nave in Sterrett, Alabama; Christopher Mullen in Charleston, South Carolina; Ladarius Cardwell in Opelika, Alabama; Unnamed in Gretna, Louisiana; Unnamed in Tolleson, Arizona; Unnamed in Puyallup, Washington; Unnamed in Boulder, Colorado; Unnamed in Festus, Missouri; Unnamed in St. Louis, Missouri; Christon Chaisson in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Why is it that one person’s death can trigger such a huge response when so many others are simply ignored?  The death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia was a great tragedy, and it shines a light into the racist underbelly of America.

But what about them?

These names are drawn from www.gunviolencearchive.org, from a survey of people killed by gun violence in the United States on Saturday, August 12, 2017.  This does not include those who were wounded, those who are going to die from their wounds, and those incidents unreported where gun violence was involved.

What about them?

Somewhere between 161 and 178 people died from drug overdoses on August 12, 2017.  That number is probably low because 1) it is based on statistics from 2016, and overdose deaths have continued to rise and 2) it was a Saturday and weekend deaths tend to run at higher rates that during the week.

What about them?

What about first responders?  What about police officers and fire fighters and others who put their lives on the line, and those who will make the ultimate sacrifice, like the two troopers in Charlottesvilles?

What about them?

How many more will die for how many reasons that we will not protest, that we will not consider, that we will not even know about?  How many homeless?  How many poor?  How many with inadequate healthcare?  How many by their own hand?

What about them?

What if we started to look beyond our own borders?  What goes on in the rest of the world?

What about them?

In a few days, if the past is any indication, things will settle back into the daily routines.  People will move on, forget, no longer care.  Remembering one life is a worthy beginning so long as we remember them all.