Fw: FW: Romanian newspaper editorial
Posted by: dhaley <dhaley@...>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 4:00 PM
Subject: Fw: FW: Romanian newspaper editorial
> Thought for the day.
>
>
> Subject: Editorial from a Romanian newspaper
> An ode to America
>
> Why are Americans so united? They don't resemble one another even if you
> paint them! They speak all the languages of the world and
> form an astonishing mixture of civilizations. Some of them are nearly
> extinct, others are incompatible with one another, and in matters of
> religious beliefs, not even God can count how many they are.
>
> Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a
> hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House,
> the army, the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers.
> Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed on the
> streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood
> and to give a helping hand. After the first moments of panic,
> they raised the flag on the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and
> ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on
> buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a minister or
> the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing
> their traditional song: "God Bless America!".
>
> Silent as a rock, I watched the charity concert broadcast on Saturday
> once, twice, three times, on different TV channels. There were Clint
> Eastwood, Willie Nelson, Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Cassius Clay,
> Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Silvester Stalone, James Wood,
> and many others whom no film or producers could ever bring together. The
> American's solidarity spirit turned them into a choir. Actually,
> choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the
> American soul. What neither George W. Bush, nor Bill Clinton,
> nor Colin Powell could say without facing the risk of stumbling over
> words and sounds, was being heard in a great and unmistakable way
> in this charity concert.
>
> I don't know how it happened that all this obsessive singing of America
> didn't sound croaky, nationalist, or ostentatious! It made you
> green with envy because you weren't able to sing for your country
> without running the risk of being considered chauvinist, ridiculous, or
> suspected of who-knows-what mean interests.
> I watched the live broadcast and the rerun of its rerun for hours
> listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with
> a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the
> Californian
> hockey player, who fought with the terrorists and prevented
> the plane from hitting a target that would have killed other hundreds or
> thousands of people. How on earth were they able to bow before a
> fellow human?
> Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some
> turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone
> call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at
> rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit which nothing can buy.
> What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their
> galloping history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for
> hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases which risk
> of sounding like commonplaces. I thought things over, but I
> reached only one conclusion.
>
> Only freedom can work such miracles!
>
>
>
>
>
>
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