Reading the names of the dead

One important part of coming to grips with what’s happened to us over the past two years is bearing witness to the dead. Two weeks ago, Martha Katz, Susan Racine and I stood outside the Massachusetts State House for an hour. It was Martin Luther King Day, and we read the names of the COIVD dead. It was a powerful experience to bear witness to the suffering and loss we have experienced. For me this also aligned to the Moral Monday’s movement which was started in North Carolina in 2013 by Reverend Dr. William Barber II and others. So for a little while this morning, it was Moral Monday for me. I wasn’t outside the Massachusetts State House, just in my living room, and read some names.

So many lives lost. This has been a hard few years. I encourage other people to read names. It feels a tiny bit healing to read the names and bear witness to the suffering and deaths from this virus. But this is not about a virus, this is about people and institutions. Governments and leaders, and the ways they reacted, with at times bravery and heroism, and yet at many times, fear and greed. And if we are to learn any lesson from COVID, we have to learn to care about each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsi3Et0NNRw&feature=youtu.be

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