Posted on 11/19/2004 11:27:21 AM PST by nickcarraway
to read later
This "rather be European" writes a 10,000 word opus…
You must have read a different article, because you didn’t read this one.
bttt for later read.
You are so right, I am beginning to think a lot of people on here only read all of an article if it is 100 words or less.
Hmm, this was posted several weeks ago. An interesting read, though, deserving of another look.
Really?
The first sentence of the article ...
" I moved from the U.S. to Europe in 1998, and I’ve been drawing comparisons ever since."
Perhaps your screen is worded differently?
Though it may be painful, you will try and get over it, I'm sure.
Rec'd the below via email today:
~GOD BLESS AMERICA
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 accounts. Nobody rushed out onto 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 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.
Cornel Nistorescu
Yes. As you noted, there are considerably more words after the first sentence.
This is long but a must-read.
Didn't get through all that - but I've also lived in Norway, and agree with much of what the author notes about the newspapers there. Self-censored lefty rags: Good for soccer scores, the TV schedule and nothing else.
ping
many posters here only need to read the title and maybe the first sentence. Then they reply with "this guy is an idiot" or some variation thereof.
And then there are those that criticize others and have no idea what the person they are criticizing has actually said in the first place, and to whom he said it to.
Great find. Must-read bump!
Not a bad essay if you read it and stay awake. I will say that the US is the only country where I got in to a brawl over an interpretation of the constitution. The US of A is a strange place and I love it.
Well, but would it be possible to use large parts of West European secondary school curricula instead PC crap of our pablik edukashin?
Since West Europe has not yet collapsed, there must be at least something they are (or have been) doing [at least half]right. High school education where the graduates are multilingual and have solid grounding in basic sciences and Western Civ seems to be worth emulating here. Besides, to a large extent (excepting multiple foreign languages) it has existed in the US ca. 100 yrs ago. Thus a conservative impulse ought to be: back towards the future!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.