Romanian's 'Ode' touches many in U.S.

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Banging out his column on an aging typewriter, Romanian journalist Cornel Nistorescu had no idea how broad a chord his "Ode to America" would strike among Americans on the other side of the world.

"Your article made me proud. It made me cry," wrote Sharon Givens, a high school teacher in Pittsburgh, of the column, a salute to the American spirit in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Nistorescu, managing director of the daily newspaper Evenimentul Zilei -- News of the Day -- published his editorial Sept 24, two days after watching a celebrity telethon in New York for victims of the attacks.

"The Americans' spirit of solidarity had transformed them into a choir."

"Actually, choir is not the word. What you could hear was the heavy artillery of the American soul. What can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their tumultuous history? Their economic power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer ... but I reached only one conclusion."

"Only freedom can work such miracles."

Since someone took the column from the English-language version of the daily's Web page, thousands of Americans at home and expats around the world have e-mailed it to friends, saying it captured their nation's spirit.