Tonight, I Mourn
Tonight, I Mourn
Tonight, I mourn.
I mourn with a deep and heavy heart.
I mourn for the Marines sacrificed at a gate in Kabul on a mission to save lives.
I mourn for the scores more killed and maimed by this deadly attack.
I mourn for those in danger of being left behind.
I mourn for the American service members who have already been lost and wounded over 20 years of brutal conflict, and the casualties of our allies and civilians.
I mourn for our nation, so torn by the most unseemly of politics, that a terrorist bomb becomes an excuse for point-scoring.
I mourn for a pandemic of anti-science conspiracy theories that is filling our ICUs beyond capacity and killing by the hundreds of thousands.
I mourn for all who have died because of the recklessness of others.
I mourn for our planet, sick and aching.
I mourn for all those suffering tonight, who are going to bed homeless, hungry, and frightened.
I mourn for a world in mourning.
I write this to find some solace in sharing this sadness with others, to find comfort in our common humanity. Loss is part of life. It comes in waves of unequal frequency, on a personal level and a global scale. We can create a space to share our feelings, tonight and going forward. Steady.
I leave you tonight with a famous quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, spoken by Malcolm in a moment of great tragedy:
"Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break."
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As always, your words are exact and eloquent. I feel as though I've been gut-punched, not only by event but by how a mass of our population is trying to score political points instead of mourning for humanity. Thank you. You've helped us again.
Dan, this is one of your best, albeit solemn, articles. Hopefully, you’ll never have to write such an article ever again.
When I heard this news of g to he suicide bombers that killed our service members, it struck hard. It brought back flashbacks of the days of your reporting of the Vietnam war, and the massive loss of life constantly being reported, almost in a daily basis.
If I may, could I add to this list of yours, Dan.
I also mourn for those lives lost daily across this country to senseless shootings. I mourn for the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, daily.
As I go to bed each evening, I say a prayer for our service men, and women fighting in foreign lands, protecting us, American citizens, and our country. Included are our first responders, doctors, nurses, and everyone in the medical profession fighting this, what seems to be, un-winable war against COVID. Snd I pray for the families of those lost in the war, and this pandemic that they may understand the senseless loss of life by some stupidity of others.
Amen