I don’t think we could have ever anticipated that the Summer of 2009 would be marked by the passing of giants and innocents.

Neda Agah-Soltan

Farrah Fawcet

Ed McMahon

Michael Jackson

Walter Cronkite

Shem Walker

John Hughes

Eunice Shriver

Ted Kennedy

Patrick Swayze

A generational struggle continues in Iran, despite Ahmadinejad’s ‘re-election’. And as that conflict still unfolds in the limited information we’re able to gather from the internets, our own civil society bristles in a debate that’s ostensibly about regulation and values. The racial animus came out of the box swinging, masked in rhetoric questioning the legitimacy of the president’s citizenship.

While we debated the race/class conundrum surrounding Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates’ arrest in Cambridge, an army veteran in my own neighborhood was shot and killed by undercover police officers at his front door step.

This wasn’t exactly a reprise of the Summer of Love. Perhaps this summer will be remembered as the Summer of Mourning. Mourning the deaths of young dissidents in Iran, mourning the death of cultural giants, lions of the senate, trusted men of journalism, and artists that defined a generation. And in their wake, I wonder how will we fill these shoes they left us.