two giants are gone

Our world has lost two ringing voices: Vaclav Hável and Christopher Hitchens, two powerful public intellectuals.

Havel was the patriot, poet, philosopher, politician, and the voice of the Velvet Revolution.


Hitchens was the iconoclastic writer, editor, essayist and critic whose targets ranged from God and Mother Teresa to Henry Kissinger. He was a sharp-tongued polemicist who wrote for, among others, Vanity Fair. I always looked for his contributions when I got my hands on that publication.


Two loud and clear interpreters of contemporary life are stilled. RIP.