Ode To America

The following article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "Cîntarea Americii" on September 24, 2001 (just days after the tragic events of 9/11) in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul zilei ("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day"). The article has been circulating on the Internet for 4 years now, so I apologize if you have already seen it. It just recently came to my attention and felt moved to share it. I checked with Snopes.com to verify its authenticity Here.

Editorial from a Romanian newspaper
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 colours 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 of 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!

As I absorbed the words of this article, I was transported back in time to those eventful days of 2001, and was reminded of the awesome unity which Americans exhibited in that moment of shared catastrophe. AMERICA was attacked. AMERICA was threatened by unknown assailants. AMERICA went on the defensive against AMERICAN enemies. AMERICANS pulled together to mourn the loss of their fellow citizens. AMERICANS started saying things like... "AMERICA - Land of the Free and Home of the Brave". Flags became ubiquitous. Bumper stickers started showing up like... "Proud to be an American", "God Bless America", "United We Stand", and "Red White and Blue - These Colors Don't Run".

It was truly a moment of American unity that may never be repeated in my lifetime. And where did it all go? Why has is it been forgotten after only 4 short years? How is it that my parents' generation could go to war on December 7, 1941 and remain utterly committed to that battle against fascism until September 2, 1945 despite losses of nearly 500,000 Americans? And why is it that today, after nearly an equivalent amount of time but suffering hardly more than 2500 casualties, and having liberated more than 50 million Afghanis and Iraqis, that Americans are now beginning to question their resolve in the current Global War on Terrorism? (...which, by the way, is no less important than WWII)

Sad to say, but I believe that it is the "fast food" syndrome at work. We want to be served NOW! We want our burgers and fries in less than 5 minutes. We want our wars to be over in ten days without any casualties... no if, ands or buts! Unfortunately, that's not real world thinking. President Bush warned us that the war on terrorism would not be a quick war, and that we would not always see results, even though successes might be occurring without our noticing it.

With the help of our allies, hundreds (if not thousands) of would-be terrorists have been captured or killed. Plots have been foiled. Plans have been disrupted. Lives have been saved. Attacks have been thwarted. We have been unbelievably successful in the War on Terror. Yet, you wouldn't know it from reading the liberally-biased media. What a shame. The left-wing media outlets attack Bush incessantly without a word of thanks for preventing another terrorist attack. But, God forbid that an attack should occur, and then they would attack him for failing to protect America!

In the days after September 11, 2001, President Bush told the country what he planned for the Global War on Terror. Everyone applauded. In his January 2002 State of the Union Address, President Bush was interrupted by applause no less than 76 times. Bush outlined what his intentions were... and everyone applauded. President Bush has not done anything other than what he promised to do. George Bush has not changed... his political opponents have changed. Those who once applauded, have now turned to stab him in the back.