Initializing variables

[Jim Hurley]

I have a list of variables, say "x,y,z"

I would like to set each of these equal to zero. If I were to use the 
following:

put "x,y,z" into tList
repeat with i = 1 to 3
put 0 into item i of tList
end repeat

This would of course replace the list x,y,z by 0,0,0 and not achieve 
my objective.

Instead I want x,y, and z to take on the values 0. I've tried quotes 
and value() without success. My actual list is very long and it would 
be awkward to

put 0 into x
put 0 into y
put 0 into z

Any thoughts on an efficient way of assigning values to variables 
within a list?

Thanks,

Jim Hurley