Proud to sound dorky (marginal Audi content)

[Shaun Mullen <smullen@philly.infi.net>]

The funny 'Merican string and smattering of Thanksgiving greetings among 'Merican
listers prompts commission of the semi-unpardonable -- getting personal.

I have much to be thankful for, and being an Audi-driving 'Merican is a big one.
My quattro has taken me to so many fabulous places and through so many interesting
experiences.  On Veterans Day, I traveled from North Carolina up I-85 and then I-95
to D.C. through some of the most spectacular late fall foliage in my memory.  It is
a trip my Audi has made effortlessly time and again in, of course, all kinds of
weather.  Business took me to the Wall -- the Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- in 
Washington, and an opportunity to meet an individual I had thought of often over
the years, but never dreamt of learning more about, let alone stand face to face
with.  She is Kim Phuc, who at age 9 in 1972, was photographed fleeing naked down 
Highway One from her village near Saigon, the clothes burned off her tiny body by
napalm from a 'Merican-directed South Vietnamese Air Force strike which nailed the
Buddhist temple in her village, the one place Kim and her brothers thought they
would be safe.  The brothers died instantly.  Kim has had some 12 operations and
years of therapy for the hideous scars and pain from the battlefield surgery on her
burns.  The photograph won a Pulitzer Prize.  More importantly, it arguably
hastened the end of the war.  Kim now lives in Toronto.  She came to the memorial
to commune with 'Merican veterans despite what the war had done to her, her family
and homeland.  What that we could have such forgiveness for others' failings.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving, fellow 'Merican listers.