OK, I have been wondering whether to write about today's anniversary at all and have left it till the last possible moment to do so. This is because others write about it better than me and because it is outside the scope of this blog.
However, I do want to say that the most appropriate article I've read here today is a video-story by Antonio Ferrari in Corriere della Sera: it is in three sections, "Dove eravamo - Where we Were", being the one that I find most touching. [The link will take you to the newspaper, not the article, but if you read Italian, I'm sure you will find it.]
My political opinion about all this is for another space. For now, let's just remember that today is about personal loss. And in that I reach out to all who were bereaved on that terrible day.
Do check out Ballpoint Wren's post today, if you haven't already done so.
4 comments:
Thank you so much for the link, Pat.
Could you give me the gist of the video-story? I only speak a little Spanish, and not very well at that.
(I am listening to it now, though! It sounds wonderful. I always did like the sound of Italian.)
My pleasure, Bonnie. Your post shows how ordinary people, not politicians, felt and reacted.
With regard to the video story, this is from memory as I can't now refind it. It's almost as though "Corriere" don't want their stories referred to in blogs. [I'd thought of going into the article in more detail in the post but didn't know how much of someone else's article it would be right to paraphrase.] Ferrari says that 9/11 has, like the day of the Kennedy assassination, become one of those dates when everyone remembers where they were when they heard about it. He goes on to say that he was in Paris and that evening saw an American girl crying in a restaurant and that he will never forget her distress. In the "Why?" section of the article he says it is important to realise that the attackers were targeting moderate Muslims as well as westerners. And in the final section he discusses little ways in which our lives have changed since, such as that our private phone calls and so on could be monitored - as he says, for security reasons, but who knows for what other purposes? Pat
Thanks for the recap, Pat.
One thing that really touched me was hearing how non-Americans helped the American tourists and ex-patriates living in their countries on 9/11 and the days following. The good will that was extended to us was comforting.
I'm afraid all that good will is long gone, though.
And now, the U.S. is so split into partisan bickering that nothing useful ever gets done. I remember reading how politically divided the U.S. just before the Civil War, and I wonder if something like that could ever happen again here.
Hi again, Bonnie. That is very sad. Do you really think the country is as divided as that? It's hard to know what to think over here.
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