26 Acts of Kindness

NBC's Ann Curry is now famous for suggesting that everyone in America perform one act of kindness for each person killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre. This is a great movement and I'm not doubting the good that comes from it or the spirit and intentions behind it, but why do we always feel we need to make good out of bad? Can't things just be purely bad? If anything could be seen as a complete and utter tragedy it was the Connecticut school shooting.

This "26 Acts of Kindness" could turn out to be a terrible thing because what if someone sees this and decides to kill 50 people so that everyone's forced to do 50 acts of kindness? It's not likely, but it's possible. Why open the door to something like that? Why create benefits for others from the death of a child? When someone's kid dies in a house fire or something do they go out and do an act of kindness to represent the spirit of that dead child? Not especially. So why do this and symbolize the number 26 so much? To ask people to do one great good deed for the collective victims would be better. Focusing so much on the number 26 almost makes it seem like a mark that is a record and most people view records as things to be exceeded and surpassed. That's definitely not what you should be doing. Take it easy on the number symbolism!