We are both suffering, Peggy who was born in Nice, was a child and then a schoolgirl there. And I who became a man there. A married man of course, but really a boy who entered manhood in Nice. We live there for a time, our two oldest started school there, and we have kept an apartment there since 1973. How many times over the years have we walked past the church where we were married, the hotel where we spent our wedding night? Nice, where we buried in turn Peggy's father, mother, brother. How could anybody do this to our Nice, a place I, we have loved so much?
I have been writing notes like this one since last night. So many friends seemed worried about our safety. So many seemed to realize how Peggy and I were feeling, forced to watch from 4,000 miles away as someone tried to destroy the soul of a place we love. We were In America, glued to the TV, here not there, and as safe as anyone. Which these days seems to mean: not very. Terrorism is too easy and also too effective. The effect is both immediate and world wide. How long can we put up with it before retaliating viciously, stupidly, and making it worse?
We are both suffering, Peggy who was born in Nice, was a child and then a schoolgirl there. And I who became a man there. A married man of course, but really a boy who entered manhood in Nice. We live there for a time, our two oldest started school there, and we have kept an apartment there since 1973. How many times over the years have we walked past the church where we were married, the hotel where we spent our wedding night? Nice, where we buried in turn Peggy's father, mother, brother. How could anybody do this to our Nice, a place I, we have loved so much?
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