Treven Anspach (right), Jan. 10, 2014.
Lou Sennick/The World
Like any year, the close of 2015 is bringing varied ‘People of the Year’ lists.
And by their nature, the lists focus on people who stood at the center of big events that changed lives and history.
For example, the Time Magazine person of the year, Angela Merkel. She's being lauded as the de-facto leader of Europe for helping the EU navigate a currency and migrant crisis.
The same concept applies to local lists, although the events are a bit scaled down. I've seen two local lists, one from OregonLive.com, and one from Go Local PDX.
Both lists include Alek Skarlatos, who, in a way, actually helped Angela Merkel's cause when he helped foil a potential terror attack on a European train.
Also making both lists: Chris Mintz. The Umpqua Community College student was wounded trying to stop a shooter on the campus.
There are other people on that list – an AIDS researcher working on a cure, a victim of sexual violence who spoke out against a powerful institution. Then there’s a football coach.
And a musician.
And of course, the PDX carpet. (In fact, the carpet from the Portland Airport was voted as a finalist for the person of the year on Oregon Live.)
One name not on the lists I read was Treven Anspach.
Anspach, a 20-year-old Umpqua Community College student, used his body to shield another student from a mass shooter. Anspach didn’t know the student he was protecting. But Lacey Scroggins, who lay underneath Anspach on the classroom floor as a gunman approached, says she is alive because of Anspach’s split decision action. The gunman had ordered everyone to the floor, she says, and Anspach rolled about a foot and a half over, to shield her, as the firing began.
Anspach, along with eight others, was killed.
I wondered why Anspach didn’t make any of the lists. It seems his inclusion on such a list would create a space to remember him, and all the others who died of gun violence this year.
A space for recognition, that the courage and bravery required for Anspach to move his body one and a half feet in less than one and a half seconds to shield a stranger, is equal to the courage it takes to sail the seas, or to stand up to tyrants, that it is equal to the courage that will one day be required to take people to the furthest reaches of space.
Treven Anspach didn’t try to cure AIDS, or make a heroic stand to save a train full of Europeans that resulted in parades around the country.
Anspach isn’t an iconic rug at an airport that served as a cultural flashpoint. And forget being a famous sports coach. Anspach’s basketball mentor told OPB that Anspach didn’t even like playing defense.
And, to be clear, those people should be honored. There should be a space for them on a people of the year list.
Still, it seems Treven Anspach deserves to be remembered as well – that somehow, we can give a little bit of space to honor a young man who gave his life in the span of one and a half feet.