Snapshots of sympathy
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Still behind the curtain
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From: Arizona, USA
Snapshots of sympathy
I don't know if this is the right forum or not. If not, may it be moved, but one of my old former collegues at UPI in London wrote the following story. I think it should be read and remembered.
---
Feature: Snapshots of sympathy
By AL WEBB
LONDON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A small girl with a Cockney accent shyly waved a
tiny American flag, and a queen brushed away a tear. In a Scottish town that
has known its own tragedy, a lone church bell tolled. On a German river,
foghorns sounded a low moan.
Across countries and continents waves of sympathy for a nation in anguish
rolled on. A young woman in a Kenyan park wept over the sad headlines in
newspapers spread on the ground. A one-time terrorist donated blood for the
victims. Hundreds stood in line in cities from Dublin to Moscow to sign
books of condolences.
And over the outpouring of grief and mourning for the lives lost in the
boiling flames and rubble of the World Trade Center towers and a wing of the
Pentagon, time and again came the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner,"
sometimes in places where it had never been sung before.
In a gesture reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner,"
symbolizing his solidarity with another troubled people four decades ago,
the Paris newspaper Le Monde perhaps summed it up best: "We are all
Americans."
In London, where the little girl with the funny accent and her American
flag pressed her damp face against the gates, the band performing the
traditional Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace suddenly did
something it had never done before -- it struck up "The Star-Spangled
Banner."
For 45 minutes, the Mall in front of the palace became a little piece of
America for hundreds of its citizens who were there because there were no
planes to take them home. And the band of the Coldstream Guards played on.
As tear-stained faces lifted and sang along, as Americans and British and
other nationals waved Old Glory, the marches rolled -- "The Liberty Bell"
after the national anthem, followed by "The Washington Post March" and
"Semper Fidelis" and finally, heart-rendingly, "When Johnny Comes Marching
Home."
Scott Kalis, an American ex-sailor with friends among the dead of the New
York Fire Department, swept off his baseball cap and placed his right hand
over his heart. When it was over, he said simply, "Thank you for letting us
do this."
What the Coldstream Guards had triggered was the greatest mass
demonstration of grief in Britain since Princess Diana was killed in a car
crash four years ago. And as with Diana's death, a carpet of flowers,
children's toys, poems, letters, all illuminated by tiny candles, built up
this time at the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in London.
A card on one bunch of lilies read: "For all the wonderful American
friends I have been lucky enough to know." And another quoted Theodore
Roosevelt: "Only those who are fit to live do not fear to die."
Amid the hundreds of bouquets, a single American flag was wrapped around a
tree. One woman pressed her tear-dampened lips to its fringe in a soft kiss.
The sweeping tide of mourning reached its crescendo at 11 o'clock Friday
morning when Britain, France, Germany and scores of other countries in
Europe, Africa and Asia went silent for three minutes, in honor of the
innocent dead in America.
In London, a taxi driver who refused the fare from an American woman named
Jill he had taken to St. Paul's Cathedral, climbed out and stood with her in
silence. In Paris, the elevator at the Eiffel Tower stopped halfway to the
top. Buses, trams and cars halted in their tracks across the continent.
In Spain, more than 650 city and town halls became gathering centers for
tens of thousands who bent their heads in silent prayer -- and then, at the
end of the three minutes, they lifted their eyes and applauded in that
people's traditional tribute to the victims of terrorism.
On the River Elbe leading into Hamburg, ships flew their flags at
half-mast. The minutes of silence crept by -- and at the end were broken by
the sound of a thousand foghorns rolling across the water into the city's
very heart.
In Lockerbie, Scotland, there was no applause, no singing, no bands, only
the ringing of a single church bell and the flutter of flags at half-mast.
This is a town with singular links to America, forged in a terrorist attack
in the skies 13 years ago.
A bomb planted aboard Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed the jumbo jet, killing
all 259 people aboard, most of them Americans, and raining death on 11
people on the ground as the wreckage tore through the sleepy little town
just before Christmas.
"The people of Lockerbie are appalled by these acts of terrorism," said
Phil Jones, chief executive of the local regional council. "We received
comfort and support from America in December 1988, and we want to let them
know they are in our thoughts now and in the difficult times ahead."
In all, according to an estimate by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in
London, some 800 million people across Europe joined in the three minutes of
silence.
At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, once part of a dividing line between freedom
and tyranny, a crowd of some 200,000 -- among them Germans whose relatives
had died in terrorist attacks -- gathered beneath a black banner bearing the
words, "We Mourn With You."
In Paris, crowds jammed the Place de la Concorde, itself a symbol of
reconciliation, while church bells rang for five minutes before the silence.
In the government's Elysee Palace, "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang out,
while over the French air waves, radio stations played John Lennon's
"Imagine."
Television stations in Italy reckoned that simple was best. They showed
pictures of the jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon
ablaze and the WTC towers tumbling into dust. There was no commentary, only
a caption: "Against the deafening noise of hatred, the sound of
civilization."
The bankers of Switzerland are not noted for their sentimentality, so they
dealt in their own currency. At the end of the three minutes of silence,
they announced they were donating more than $500,000 to the families of the
victims of the atrocities in America.
Lloyd's of London, the insurance market based in the British capital and
one of several insurers of the World Trade Center, rang
its Lutine bell and observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead in
America -- some of them in the several broker offices Lloyd's has -- had --
in the WTC.
The bell was salvaged from the British frigate HMS Lutine in the 19th
century. It is traditionally rung to signal news of a missing ship.
In Belfast, the bullets and bombs of Northern Ireland's own form of
terrorism, known as sectarian violence, went silent as tens of thousands
from both sides of the divide -- Roman Catholic and Protestant -- gathered
in front of a makeshift stage at City Hall, to stand in silent tribute.
It is a city that knows the heartache of terrorism. "We have suffered for
33 years," said Betty McLearon. "People here have to be admired for the way
they can cope with it. It will take the people in New York a long time to
get over this."
The mourning went well beyond Europe's borders. Air raid sirens went off
across Cyprus, signaling the start of three minutes of silence and bringing
the people and traffic of that tiny Mediterranean nation to a standstill.
In Moscow, the Russians observed a minute's silence as they laid wreaths
and floral tributes outside the U.S. Embassy once a symbol of the Cold War.
Thousands of Muscovites lined up patiently to sign books of condolences.
In Nairobi's Uhuru Park, some 1,000 Kenyans assembled for a prayer
service, among them victims of the terrorist car bombings at U.S. embassies
in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 231 people.
A young woman knelt on the ground, newspapers carrying headlines and
stories of the unfolding American tragedy spread before her, her tears
softly smearing the newsprint as she prayed silently.
In turbulent Israel, a nurse gently inserted a needle into the right arm
of Yasser Arafat, himself a one-time terrorist who is now head of the
Palestinian Authority. In a demonstration of support, he was donating blood
to help the American injured.
A few streets away, a Palestinian youth carried a sign written in both
Arabic and English: "We feel with you. We are victims too." His sad eyes
were in stark contrast to some of his fellow Palestinians who danced jigs of
joy as television programs showed the WTC towers collapsing.
Back in London, the minutes of silence were followed by a service of
remembrance in the capital's majestic St. Paul's Cathedral, led by Queen
Elizabeth II herself. In the audience of 2,400 inside, Americans hoisted the
Stars and Stripes for the rest of the world to see via television.
Outside the cathedral, the tens of thousands who could not get in waved
their own tiny flags and listened over the loudspeakers that carried the
words and music for blocks around.
The cathedral's huge organ rumbled into life, to open the service,
appropriately, with the American national anthem. Then something happened
that has never happened before, certainly not in public and doubtless not
even in private.
Softly, the queen began to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Now, the
British monarch does not "sing" national anthems. When they are played, she
never even opens her mouth.
Until now. But Queen Elizabeth sang it all, this song whose words were
written 187 years ago during Britain's last war with her lost American
colonies, through the final words, "... O'er the land of the free, and the
home of the brave." With the last note, the queen gently brushed away a
tear.
That said it all.
---
Feature: Snapshots of sympathy
By AL WEBB
LONDON, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- A small girl with a Cockney accent shyly waved a
tiny American flag, and a queen brushed away a tear. In a Scottish town that
has known its own tragedy, a lone church bell tolled. On a German river,
foghorns sounded a low moan.
Across countries and continents waves of sympathy for a nation in anguish
rolled on. A young woman in a Kenyan park wept over the sad headlines in
newspapers spread on the ground. A one-time terrorist donated blood for the
victims. Hundreds stood in line in cities from Dublin to Moscow to sign
books of condolences.
And over the outpouring of grief and mourning for the lives lost in the
boiling flames and rubble of the World Trade Center towers and a wing of the
Pentagon, time and again came the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner,"
sometimes in places where it had never been sung before.
In a gesture reminiscent of John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner,"
symbolizing his solidarity with another troubled people four decades ago,
the Paris newspaper Le Monde perhaps summed it up best: "We are all
Americans."
In London, where the little girl with the funny accent and her American
flag pressed her damp face against the gates, the band performing the
traditional Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace suddenly did
something it had never done before -- it struck up "The Star-Spangled
Banner."
For 45 minutes, the Mall in front of the palace became a little piece of
America for hundreds of its citizens who were there because there were no
planes to take them home. And the band of the Coldstream Guards played on.
As tear-stained faces lifted and sang along, as Americans and British and
other nationals waved Old Glory, the marches rolled -- "The Liberty Bell"
after the national anthem, followed by "The Washington Post March" and
"Semper Fidelis" and finally, heart-rendingly, "When Johnny Comes Marching
Home."
Scott Kalis, an American ex-sailor with friends among the dead of the New
York Fire Department, swept off his baseball cap and placed his right hand
over his heart. When it was over, he said simply, "Thank you for letting us
do this."
What the Coldstream Guards had triggered was the greatest mass
demonstration of grief in Britain since Princess Diana was killed in a car
crash four years ago. And as with Diana's death, a carpet of flowers,
children's toys, poems, letters, all illuminated by tiny candles, built up
this time at the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in London.
A card on one bunch of lilies read: "For all the wonderful American
friends I have been lucky enough to know." And another quoted Theodore
Roosevelt: "Only those who are fit to live do not fear to die."
Amid the hundreds of bouquets, a single American flag was wrapped around a
tree. One woman pressed her tear-dampened lips to its fringe in a soft kiss.
The sweeping tide of mourning reached its crescendo at 11 o'clock Friday
morning when Britain, France, Germany and scores of other countries in
Europe, Africa and Asia went silent for three minutes, in honor of the
innocent dead in America.
In London, a taxi driver who refused the fare from an American woman named
Jill he had taken to St. Paul's Cathedral, climbed out and stood with her in
silence. In Paris, the elevator at the Eiffel Tower stopped halfway to the
top. Buses, trams and cars halted in their tracks across the continent.
In Spain, more than 650 city and town halls became gathering centers for
tens of thousands who bent their heads in silent prayer -- and then, at the
end of the three minutes, they lifted their eyes and applauded in that
people's traditional tribute to the victims of terrorism.
On the River Elbe leading into Hamburg, ships flew their flags at
half-mast. The minutes of silence crept by -- and at the end were broken by
the sound of a thousand foghorns rolling across the water into the city's
very heart.
In Lockerbie, Scotland, there was no applause, no singing, no bands, only
the ringing of a single church bell and the flutter of flags at half-mast.
This is a town with singular links to America, forged in a terrorist attack
in the skies 13 years ago.
A bomb planted aboard Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed the jumbo jet, killing
all 259 people aboard, most of them Americans, and raining death on 11
people on the ground as the wreckage tore through the sleepy little town
just before Christmas.
"The people of Lockerbie are appalled by these acts of terrorism," said
Phil Jones, chief executive of the local regional council. "We received
comfort and support from America in December 1988, and we want to let them
know they are in our thoughts now and in the difficult times ahead."
In all, according to an estimate by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in
London, some 800 million people across Europe joined in the three minutes of
silence.
At Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, once part of a dividing line between freedom
and tyranny, a crowd of some 200,000 -- among them Germans whose relatives
had died in terrorist attacks -- gathered beneath a black banner bearing the
words, "We Mourn With You."
In Paris, crowds jammed the Place de la Concorde, itself a symbol of
reconciliation, while church bells rang for five minutes before the silence.
In the government's Elysee Palace, "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang out,
while over the French air waves, radio stations played John Lennon's
"Imagine."
Television stations in Italy reckoned that simple was best. They showed
pictures of the jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon
ablaze and the WTC towers tumbling into dust. There was no commentary, only
a caption: "Against the deafening noise of hatred, the sound of
civilization."
The bankers of Switzerland are not noted for their sentimentality, so they
dealt in their own currency. At the end of the three minutes of silence,
they announced they were donating more than $500,000 to the families of the
victims of the atrocities in America.
Lloyd's of London, the insurance market based in the British capital and
one of several insurers of the World Trade Center, rang
its Lutine bell and observed a minute of silence in memory of the dead in
America -- some of them in the several broker offices Lloyd's has -- had --
in the WTC.
The bell was salvaged from the British frigate HMS Lutine in the 19th
century. It is traditionally rung to signal news of a missing ship.
In Belfast, the bullets and bombs of Northern Ireland's own form of
terrorism, known as sectarian violence, went silent as tens of thousands
from both sides of the divide -- Roman Catholic and Protestant -- gathered
in front of a makeshift stage at City Hall, to stand in silent tribute.
It is a city that knows the heartache of terrorism. "We have suffered for
33 years," said Betty McLearon. "People here have to be admired for the way
they can cope with it. It will take the people in New York a long time to
get over this."
The mourning went well beyond Europe's borders. Air raid sirens went off
across Cyprus, signaling the start of three minutes of silence and bringing
the people and traffic of that tiny Mediterranean nation to a standstill.
In Moscow, the Russians observed a minute's silence as they laid wreaths
and floral tributes outside the U.S. Embassy once a symbol of the Cold War.
Thousands of Muscovites lined up patiently to sign books of condolences.
In Nairobi's Uhuru Park, some 1,000 Kenyans assembled for a prayer
service, among them victims of the terrorist car bombings at U.S. embassies
in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 231 people.
A young woman knelt on the ground, newspapers carrying headlines and
stories of the unfolding American tragedy spread before her, her tears
softly smearing the newsprint as she prayed silently.
In turbulent Israel, a nurse gently inserted a needle into the right arm
of Yasser Arafat, himself a one-time terrorist who is now head of the
Palestinian Authority. In a demonstration of support, he was donating blood
to help the American injured.
A few streets away, a Palestinian youth carried a sign written in both
Arabic and English: "We feel with you. We are victims too." His sad eyes
were in stark contrast to some of his fellow Palestinians who danced jigs of
joy as television programs showed the WTC towers collapsing.
Back in London, the minutes of silence were followed by a service of
remembrance in the capital's majestic St. Paul's Cathedral, led by Queen
Elizabeth II herself. In the audience of 2,400 inside, Americans hoisted the
Stars and Stripes for the rest of the world to see via television.
Outside the cathedral, the tens of thousands who could not get in waved
their own tiny flags and listened over the loudspeakers that carried the
words and music for blocks around.
The cathedral's huge organ rumbled into life, to open the service,
appropriately, with the American national anthem. Then something happened
that has never happened before, certainly not in public and doubtless not
even in private.
Softly, the queen began to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Now, the
British monarch does not "sing" national anthems. When they are played, she
never even opens her mouth.
Until now. But Queen Elizabeth sang it all, this song whose words were
written 187 years ago during Britain's last war with her lost American
colonies, through the final words, "... O'er the land of the free, and the
home of the brave." With the last note, the queen gently brushed away a
tear.
That said it all.
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 739
Likes: 0
From: Dallas, TX USA
I'm not sure how to respond to this, but I'll try.
As an American, I was stunned at the level of sympathy that was demonstrated around the world towards America on Friday. I know that many other nations suffered losses large and small in the attacks, but after hearing for so long from politicians (and others) that there are people out there who hate America, it was wonderful to see that the people of many other nations don't feel that way.
We Americans are not perfect, but I think it's in our hearts to try and do what is good and right in the world. I view most of the criticism that does occur as being constructive and well intended. I guess I'm trying to say that I was deeply moved by all the show of support, and for this American, it did not go unoticed. My thanks to all who showed their sympathy in our time need.
As an American, I was stunned at the level of sympathy that was demonstrated around the world towards America on Friday. I know that many other nations suffered losses large and small in the attacks, but after hearing for so long from politicians (and others) that there are people out there who hate America, it was wonderful to see that the people of many other nations don't feel that way.
We Americans are not perfect, but I think it's in our hearts to try and do what is good and right in the world. I view most of the criticism that does occur as being constructive and well intended. I guess I'm trying to say that I was deeply moved by all the show of support, and for this American, it did not go unoticed. My thanks to all who showed their sympathy in our time need.
