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>This was forwarded to me
Here is a reprint of an editorial from a Romanian Newspaper that was
circulated by the US Forces Command Public Affairs Office. The language is occasionally awkward due to translation, but the meaning is unmistakable.This Romanian gets it because he's never had it and wants it so badly. We don't fully understand or appreciate what we have. Here it is from another perspective.
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 (are) from 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.
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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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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wow, that's one of the most moving pieces I've read about the USA. Thanks very much for posting it here.
Best regards,
WW
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear wow: Thanks. Too bad the Taliban won't see it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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WWH- you never know! After all, it is a World Wide Web!
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