A eulogy for 7,700 Conn. neighbors
FIt seems fitting to re-purpose paper to mark the bleak anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has become an essential part of our everyday lives, and a reminder of the fragility of life.
or a wedding anniversary, the traditional gift after one year is paper. Paper is essential. It is fragile. The blank page invites imagination of the future. It seems fitting to re-purpose paper to mark the bleak anniversary of the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus has become an essential part of our everyday lives, and a reminder of the fragility of life. We accommodate it, endure it, and mourn its staggering list of victims.
We are publishing the names of more than 6,510 of Connecticut’s COVID-19 victims on the pages of our newspapers, in a special section titled “Reflect. Rebuild.” that looks back as well as forward. These are names that were officially reported and known to Hearst Connecticut Media. The actual number is more than 7,700. The names appear on our websites as well, but it seems appropriately ephemeral to document these lives in ink on paper.
The list takes up seven pages. It is impossible to contextualize that much loss.
Each December, we feel a familiar pain as we reflexively recall the 26 students and educators who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown more than eight years ago.
Each September, Connecticut memorializes the 161 people with ties to our state who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Those names remain recognizable to many people in the state, particularly in their hometowns.
Even the total number of 9/11 victims — 2,997 — represent less than half of the people we have lost in this state since the coronavirus claimed its first Connecticut life one year ago.
It’s a number that is dwarfing the 2,403 Americans killed in our nation’s “day which will live in infamy,” the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
There are monuments in towns, cities and the nation’s capital to honor our war dead. It’s become somewhat controversial to compare these casualties with those who died as a result of this faceless enemy. Still, it was immediately and universally acknowledged that health care and emergency workers were on the front lines with supermarket employees and others since this battle began.
The breadth of loss has at times seemed paralyzing, turning the more than 520,000 Americans killed into a mirror version of the Unknown Soldier.
Except that they are not unknown. There will never be a monument to collectively record these lives, so we are left to return to the essentials to frame context: arithmetic and paper.
War is an essential as well. We lose when we underestimate the enemy, when we are not prepared for battle. We fared much better when we started donning masks, washing hands and striving for social distancing in Connecticut. We suffered setbacks during the holiday season, seemingly due to the yearning to reconnect.
The vaccines give us hope, but we must remain focused, and resilient. Dropping the mask mandate, as Texas is poised to do, is an irrational strategy.
A look over the names in these pages can provide inspiration. You may recognize some. No one should fail to acknowledge the daunting threat of COVID. It has made lives as fragile as paper. And these paper pages are already too many.