Are you bitter about the hands who execute oppression, baffled about the dulling of sensibility and sense? Truth-speakers have been named rumour-spreaders; doctors and journalists have been shamed as traitors and prisoners. He’s gone missing? Let him be gone missing. She’s been locked up? Let her be locked up. They have been forgotten–wait–who are they again?
Are you discouraged about the feet that tread a global health crisis into a geopolitical game, dejected about the neglect of scientific advice for the erection of national, ethnic, and racial barriers? Let even the local families divide among themselves, say the manipulators, and let the discussion for common good become the devil that tears communities apart.
Or are you overwhelmed by the loss of loved ones, grief-stricken by the sudden absence of your most intimate companions? Yet the virus does not stop there: as the corpses pile up, even funerals are denied or delayed, leaving no opportunity for a dignifying remembrance. Or are you crushed by the economic collapse, perplexed by the uncertain future where the provision of bread and shelter is no longer guaranteed? “I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is,” you lament like the prophet.
