Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

—Dylan Thomas

Mark Kernan, CounterPunch:

The writer Julian Barnes says that history is not what happened; history is just what historians tell us has happened. There is much truth in this. Much of what we thought was the truth about many of the seminal events of the Troubles in Ulster, or an approximation of them, have turned out not to be the truth at all, often not even close to it. The so-called ‘fog of war’, which supposedly describes how the truth is concealed in war and conflict, is by now a cliched and tired truism. Yet like all aphorisms it can be both true and not true at the same time depending on how you choose to interpret it. It is of course a fiction and a convenient fiction at that for those whose job it is to hide the reality of what is going on and conceal the truth. Instead, we should understand it as the ‘fog’ in war and as a strategy, deliberately designed that way or opportunistically seized upon, to cover up the violence of the powerful, by the powerful.

Los Angeles Times:

With the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, life in 2021 returned to something resembling normal, with stadiums again full, lockdowns eased and kids back in class. But there were also plenty of events to remind us that true normal still remains a way off.