‘Is this my country?’

There are times to keep silent. When we can only lower our heads and allow words that must be heard to fly unimpeded to the farthest corners of the land, to wherever on earth Greeks dwell. Because, despite the great progress of the past 200 years, we must acknowledge that our country still does not secure the basic needs of its children, of all its inhabitants.

The tragedy at Tempe is a tragedy in the clearest sense of the concept that so engrossed ancient poets: the protagonists rushed headlong towards catastrophe because they did not know where they were going, victims of the hubris which made them believe that they lived in a country where their compatriots and the state would do everything necessary to protect those in need of their protection.

Nearly a year after the night of February 28, which shook the country and shattered our last illusions, the tragedy has...