This week and next, we would do well to pause and reflect on the solemn and universal backdrop against which this period of time unfolds every year.
It is a period that reminds us of those historical encounters between governors and governed, when every act of the authorities exasperates the people and every refusal to act excites their contempt. A period of 12 days that should rend our souls asunder with searing intensity and pierce our hearts with rape-like violation.