Head-on collisions and parades

A full 202 years since the start of the Greek Revolution, the Tempe tragedy reminds us of how much further we have to go to fulfill the dream of an independent and prosperous country. 

As the days pass after that dark February 28, it becomes ever clearer that our trauma is not so much that such an inconceivable accident could occur, but that the framework of our public life is forever oriented towards division and conflict. It is as if we choose to blame each other for our failures and defeats rather than to seek solutions. And even as this is presented as a pursuit of the common good, its primary aim is to cleanse one side of responsibility while covering the other in mud. This results in an inability to evaluate people and circumstances. In a cloud of mutual suspicion, our successes are limited and our defeats unmitigated.

Half a century after the end of the...