Sorry for your massacre

Got a note yesterday from a speechwriter friend in Brussels—one of several she has sent, between several I have sent, in moments like this. Starting darkly to wonder if we should stop reinventing the wheel with these. —DM

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Dear _________,

I'm thinking of my friends in ________ today, after __ of your fellow citizens were murdered in cold blood and __ injured senselessly at a _______ while they gathered peacefully for _______.

_____ times in the last __ years, you and I have had to console one another after a terrorist attack. How many more?

We _______s are very much with you ________s today, and I know friendship and solidarity will remain longer than hate.

But I do worry about our stamina. And so I've created this form letter so that, as we call on our reserves of nerve, sympathy and love, we don't we don't have to tax our creative powers too.

Warm wishes—for you, for us, and for the whole human family, which must find a better way, somehow, some day.

Sincerely,

Your Friend in _________