It was the season of light, and it was the season of darkness...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...”

Charles Dickens’s world-famous, classic novel “A Tale of Two Cities” begins with these lines... It was both the spring of hope and the winter of despair... The author’s lines seem to describe these very days. The first sentence of a book is its most striking, impressive part. I sometimes wonder what the first sentence would be if societies were a book... In these dark days, ours would probably be, “We were dying from negligence, from apathy, from greed for money; we were dying.”

Our people who died due to negligence and improper construction in the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes have now died again due to negligence at a hotel in Kartalkaya. Families were devastated; grandmothers and grandfathers helplessly received the bodies of the children and grandchildren they had sent on vacation... Words are so meaningless... Human life should not be this worthless...

What remains in memory from that great fire are the white sheets hung out of the window. White sheets reaching out helplessly for a chance at life... Fire safety measures that were ignored to make more profit and the lack of inspections tore many children, young people, mothers, and fathers—who were still in the spring of their lives—away from life. As a result of this disaster, for which not a single official has resigned, our country has turned into a house of mourning.

Yet, in the age we live in, the average human lifespan has increased with the development of science and technology. Thanks to the same science and technology, the chances of people surviving high-magnitude earthquakes have increased. We live in an age where, again with the advancement of technology, measures and precautions against fires, floods, and natural disasters can be taken very easily. While no one dies in a magnitude seven earthquake on the other side of the world, why do people die here? Or, while 28 people lose their lives in a fire in a large city in America, how are so many of our lives torn away from existence in just one hotel here?

The problem here is too big to be explained by a lack of inspection alone... Either we do not have the necessary technological infrastructure and competence, or even if we do, it is not being implemented. The second option is much more painful... In the end, some merchants and contractors who avoid the cost of ensuring safety build coffin-like buildings that cost people their lives.

The human child is the living being that grows with the most difficulty... A child’s life is woven with labor, stitch by stitch... It should not be this easy to tear children away from life... It should not be.