BlankForwarded to me by a friend. It sent wonderful shivers of hope down my
spine.
Hugs,
PJ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• A Squirrel's Tale
Vote For Us! • What's Up?
• Astrology & New Age
• Garnered Images Astrology
October 7-13, 2001: National Squirrel Awareness Week
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2001 11:28 PM
Subject: An Ode To Ameica
Subject: An Ode To Ameica
This is an editorial recently printed in a Romanian newspaper and
provided by an Army public affairs officer deployed in the region. It offers a
positive and insightful view on recent events from a
surprising source.
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
Author unknown to me
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