Theo Van Gogh, In Memorium

Pieter Dorsman remembers Van Gogh on the first anniversary of his murder.

And that brings us back to Theo, the man on the bike, the father, the errant moviemaker, the jester, the drinker, the womanizer, the man so full of life that he could not bring himself to see that it would soon be over. His death allowed fear to engulf the Dutch street and to create two groups, the fearing and the fearless. Neither group has so far been able to come up with a real strategy for the future of the troubled nation which – as we’ve seen in Paris this week – will become part of the battlefield called Europe. Theo was one of the few to see it, say it, and die for it.