[meteorite-list] One year ago

From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:08:23 2004
Message-ID: <3D7E6A16.7547332E_at_lehrer.uni-karlsruhe.de>

One year ago, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, I went
online to download that day's posts. What I found was this:

> Not meteorite related / Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:25:21 -0500

> For those of you who haven't heard yet America has been attacked.
> This makes the Oklahoma bombing look like child's play. A plane
> has hit the Pentagon and one plane has hit each of the World Trade
> Center towers. One of the towers has collapsed. According to some
> news reports up to three of our commercial planes have been hijacked
> as well. Rhett Bourland

I translated Rhett's words for my wife and she was asking me if I was
aware of what I was translating. I said yes I was. Today I know I
was not. Soon after, my daughter and my son-in-law arrived and we
had to watch the abominable, nightmarish scenario that was unfolding
before our eyes.

I thought that I had finally overcome those woeful moments but while
I was watching again one of those TV documentaries tonight about the
coward attack on innocent people of every creed and every race, about
this barbaric attack on our principles of freedom and human dignity,
I realized that I would never be able to forget.

There is no excuse, there is no justification, and there is no need
to tell me it all happened because ... I grew up in post-war Germany,
I saw black Americans give me Cadbury chocolate or chewing gum
and candy and I still see their shining white teeth and the friendly
expressions on their faces, I still remember GI's whom a 5-year-old
Bernd asked in broken English: "Have you money, Mister?" And more
often than not, they gave me 50 Pfennigs or even 1 German Mark, a
huge amount of money in those days after WWII, these are the things
I still cherish in my heart and so my heart goes out to those who
lost loved ones on September 11, my heart goes out to America,

Bernd
Received on Tue 10 Sep 2002 05:54:30 PM PDT