Never Forget...Pay It Forward

By Allen Bacon, Editor, The Daily Bosco

The tenth anniversary of the horrific mass murder of students at a high school campus in Colorado was marked by memorial services that were highly publicized by the media. There was footage of the memorial services but there were also images of that horrible day on April 20, 1999...a replay of the event that many of us are trying to forget.

I have mixed emotions about this.

One part of me wants to remember these events so we never forget to take steps that will keep this from happening again. The other part of me...the cynical part...tells me that the media shows replays these horrible events to capture better ratings.

There's one huge reason that I really don't want to see replays of these events on television. I remember clearly that in this event, and events like it, that the killers left notes and video to the effect that they would be famous for this. It seems like they got their wish.

The names of the killers seem to be as prominent as the victims and that's very wrong. Every year on this date their heinous crime is drudged back up and their notoriety as one of the biggest mass murderers in history is confirmed. They got their wish. Their famous.

While it certainly is appropriate to have private memorial services for the victims so their families remember their loved ones... I wish the constant replay of the tragedy would stop. Because you know that somewhere some people are getting ideas that, in a perverse way, they can be famous too and their name will be remembered forever.

As an alternative each of us on an individual level need to make it our resolve to be more inclusive and tolerant of other people to make sure these events don't happen again. In other words, treat people like you would want to be treated. It's a simple concept, I know. But it works.