As the US marked one million Covid-19 deaths on Thursday, calls have increased for official, permanent ways to honour those who have died.
Though individual communities, cities and states have organised their own vigils and memorials, activists are working to ensure that those who were lost are not forgotten.
Past memorials
The largest national vigil to date was held by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in January 2021 on the day the country surpassed 400,000 deaths.
The two spoke in front of a display containing 400 lights, each representing 1,000 lives lost, that were placed along the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
“To heal, we must remember,” Mr Biden said. “It’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation.”
In New York City, the local government partnered with The City, a non-profit news publication, to project images of more than 400 local residents who had died from Covid-19 on to the Brooklyn Bridge in April 2021.
And the Washington National Cathedral in the nation's capital has tolled its bell once for every 1,000 deaths every time the country has reached a new 100,000-death milestone.
Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2022/05/13/us-activists-call-for-permanent-covid-memorials-to-help-country-mourn/
Comments