We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the
USA.

Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written
by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "C"ntarea
Americii" meaning "Ode To America") on September 24, 2002 in the
Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of
the Day").


~An Ode to America~



"Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs. 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, and the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank acounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. TheAmericans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over 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 government official or the president was passing.

On every occasion, they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!" I watched the live broadcast and rerun after 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 gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being?
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 no money 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 with the risk of sounding commonplace.

I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion...Only
freedom can work such miracles."


Something to think about when It's time to vote.
Country John

That's an interesting article, John. Over the years I've read quite a few just like it, editorials, naturally. I'm just puzzled by your closing remark though. What do you mean when you say that this is something to think about when it's time to vote? Can you explain please?

Talk radio is filling the boards (and the air) with very disctracting issues that seem to prevent people what this election process is all about in the first place.

The end result of every election is that we are left with some form of "freedom" as we envisioned it. Somehow or other in our history we drifted away from what was needed to preserve this and we loaded all kinds of other stuff in the mix and now they are the most important issues of the day.

It is important who wins the presidency, it is important that knuckleheads not formulate policy that will result in our destruction, of course.

We are not even close to that. We're just not voting.

When we do vote (if we do vote) we need to remember that the things done by the people we elect influence our freedom in some way. If we don't like it we need to change the face. We're not doing that (or at least we are not looking at it that way) from what I read and hear.

The writer recognizes so readily what we take for granted in this country.

Just an observation

Country John