I am doing this as well, I think the way I solved it is a bit more elegant. Essentially I just have a Jquery function that runs before the form post that selects all the options.
Why not have the list of items in checkboxes. Then you could iterate through the checkboxes in your action and grab all selected checkboxes.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.