I awoke shattered.

Like so many, waking this morning to the tragic and shocking news of Elijah Cumming’s death was just heartbreaking.

A voice of truth, outrage and social justice in a world of lies and corruption will be sorely missed. His loss is even more starkly felt at this dark moment in American history when those who speak truth to power and lead from their heart are so sadly missing in our government.

More than a politician he was a leader and a champion of democracy. He offered that most American of virtues- hope, in a time when so many despair.

As the news cruelly settled in, this sense of monumental loss to our country felt sadly familiar.

Over 50 years ago I recall waking up on a June morning in 1968 to learn about the death of another American politician, another champion of human rights who spoke from his heart.  – Robert Kennedy. A fighter and a man of deeply held moral convictions, he cared about the outsider, and righting wrongs when he saw it.

When I was a  young teenager,  Robert Kennedy had ignited the passions of my fledging politics.  Like today the country was deeply divided, there was racial strife, an unwanted war, and Bobby offered hope. With Kennedy’s death as with Cummings today, the loss of a vital voice and the loss of hope and are intertwined.

A light in our deepening darkness has been forever dimmed. A giant voice, a speaker of truth has been silenced

Like Kennedy, his death leaves an empty space that will not soon be filled.

We have lost a national treasure.

Again.