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(Newspaper article from Romania)
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(Newspaper article from Romania)
This article was written by Mr. Cornel
Nistorescu and
published under the title "Cnntarea Americii" on
September
24 in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul
zilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of
the Day").
(verified by SNOPES)
**************************************
Subject: News Clip about why America is united.
We rarely get a chance to
see another country's
editorial about us, the USA. When you think the
US
isn't thought well of all over the world, read this
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
Americans' 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 common places. I thought things
over, but I reached only one
conclusion.
Only freedom can work such miracles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Submitted by:
Joni Solis ~ Artist
Feast
on art and poetry at...
http://www.alove4art.com
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