None of the six names I list below ever fought in a war. None of the six names I list below ever served their country.
All six of the names I list below were sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, whose lives were cut short by no other reason than they were on the mind of a madman.
Please remember these names today when you finish grilling on your barbecue.
Please remember these names when you put on some extra suntan lotion at the beach.
Please remember these names when you watch a parade today.
Please remember the name of George Chen. He was a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to enrolling at UCSB, Chen was a camp counselor at his local YMCA.
Please remember the name of Cheng Yuan Hong. He was a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and he studied computer engineering.
Please remember the name of Weihan Wang, who enrolled at UCSB after graduating from high school in Fremont.
Please remember the name of Katherine Cooper. She was going to graduate with a degree in art history. She loved to paint.
Please remember the name of Veronika Weiss. Remember the games of water polo, a sport in which she excelled in high school.
Please remember the name of Christopher Ross Michael-Martinez. He loved baseball – especially the Chicago Cubs – and he hoped to spend a semester in London, and then to a career in law.
Please remember their families. Their friends. Their teachers. Their classmates.
Please remember that they never received the chance to live full and productive and fulfilling lives.
Please remember the sorority of Delta Delta Delta, who lost two of their sisters.
Please remember the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, who lost six of their students.
Please remember that there are evil, twisted, sick, demented, disgusting people in this world, for whom no amount of counseling or comfort or medication or epiphany will ever take them out of a path of horror and destruction. This isn’t the plotline of some TV show where a superhero will swoop down from the skies and rescue the victims.
I hate now that Isla Vista joins the list of tragic names – Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine, Nickel Mines. Please remember those victims as well.
Please remember those victims. Keep them in your heart today. Say a blessing for their souls, say a novena for their families.
Please remember.
Please don’t ever forget.
Chuck The Writer 