Hello Darkness, My Old Friend.

I wasn't going to do this. Ten years ago, I was ten and just chilling out in grade school. I came home and watched the news with the family--an odd occurrence, albeit--and everything was normal. The only reverberating thought I would have had that night was I was coloring and I wanted to show the picture to my mom and she shoo-ed me away, saying, "Not now." I felt hurt that she didn't want to see my picture, seeing as how diligently I had been working on it.

It was a genie coming out of a lamp. The odd details we remember so distinctly. 

So I wasn't going to do this. I was lucky as to not have been touched by it. But after receiving an e-mail from Niklas, a German, an outsider with a huge and philosophical heart, who has all the reasons in the world to not need be involved, I guess I am doing this.

He wrote me:


"Today is ten years after 9/11 and there were ceremonies around the world.

I didn't think off it much but then in the news, the German embassedor in the USA--who had hist first day on 9/11/2001--talked about how important solidarity was to the people affected. How important it was that the USA knew that they don't have to be world-police all alone anymore because they can't do that anyway, because they can be hit hard, too.

And then I remembered how depressing it was to hear that most people in Michigan didn't know how much support and grief they got from all around the world. Many still don't know... All they see is people celebrating in Iraq and Afganistan that night. They would ask, "Does all the world really hate us that much?"

But did you know that nowhere in the world, not even in the USA, did so many people gather as they did at the Brandenburger gate in Berlin, Germany? The same place where almost 40 years ago the beloved American president said the he, and the US, empathizes with Berlin and understands their fears and is there to support the City in its struggle to reunite.

Just like on 9/11 when the Berliner people got out to stand together and show that they feel with NY and with the USA, with the Union of NATO...

It is sad that the news of celebrating extremist over weighted the news of millions gathering in London, Amsterdam, and Berlin... But we can hope that a few Americans did get the news from their Allies and that they know that they have friends and that they have unconventional support in the defence against the brutal destruction of terror!

...

 But if you could pass on the word that the USA still has many strong allies in the world you would do a good deed..."

Nick wrote this to me on the 11th, saying he was feeling sentimental and that, "If I would have a blog, this is what I would have written today." That is like pressing the Okay to consent button in my list.