Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Is it...: or, It is nothing pass by: Heb. pass by the way?
Lamentations 1:12 (KJV)
There is something sobering about witnessing one people’s festival of remembrance and pride while, in that same hour, others endure siege, imprisonment, and the terror of approaching storms with no shelter in sight. The ancient poet of Lamentations spoke from the wreckage of a city, calling out to passersby—asking whether they could truly see the suffering before them. Today’s news invites a similar pause: to mark time and tradition is not wrong, but to do so with eyes closed to the anguish of others is a kind of forgetting. The question remains: what does it mean to witness? How do we hold both gratitude for what we have and deep sorrow for what others are losing, all at once?
What prompted this
As one nation marks a milestone anniversary with celebration, the world beyond its borders faces ongoing violence, displacement, and suffering—drone strikes in Sudan, detention and persecution elsewhere, natural disasters bearing down on vulnerable populations, and the grinding toll of protracted conflicts.
- US marks 250th birthday with fireworks, flyovers and extreme weather BBC World
- Ukraine hits major oil terminal in Russia's St Petersburg BBC World
- Evacuations in Guam as super typhoon Bavi approaches BBC World
- Chinese underground church figure Jin Mingri freed from prison BBC World
- Paul Pelosi in hit-and-run in California, car left with major damage, authorities say NPR News
- Pastor freed from prison in China weeks after Trump requested his release NPR News
- In Mount Rushmore speech, Trump veers from U.S. exceptionalism to warnings about communism NPR News
- Trump addresses nation and fireworks light up National Mall after storm delay NPR News
- Archaeologists uncover ancient Byzantine city in Egypt’s western desert The Guardian
- ‘The situation is terrible’: aid workers on life in Sudanese city pummelled by drone strikes The Guardian