Bio

Mindy Finkelstein is sixteen years old and preparing to be a senior in high school class of 2000. She is a Junior Counselor at the North Valley Jewish Community Center's day camp and one of the shooting victims of the sick man who walked into the center on Tuesday, August 10, 1999 and shot five people to demonstrate his hatred for 'non-whites'. The victims included three very young children, the receptionist, and then later a postal worker. All survived the attack except for the postal worker, Joseph Ileto.

Mindy wrote this poem when she was a 14 year old at her synagogues ninth grade confirmation class. It originally appeared in 'Hard to Imagine', an anthology of poetry written by seventh and ninth grade students in response to studying the Holocaust.

The following work is Copyright © 1999, and owned by Mindy Finkelstein and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsover without written permission from the author.

Why?

Why when one falls no one cares
Why when 2 fall no one cares
Why when 3 fall no one cares
Why when 100 fall a few start to see
Why when 1,000 fall a few start to plea
Why when 10,000 fall only some cry
Why when 100,000 fall still no one tries
Why when 1,000,000 fall they all turn away
Why when 2,000,000 fall they say Don't worry, tomorrow's a new day
Why when 3,000,000 fall they say it'll end soon
Why when 4,000,000 fall they act like caterpillars and hide in their cocoon
Why when 5,000,000 fall almost everyone knows but still they don't care
Why when 6,000,000 fall no one understands that it just isn't fair