Saturday, May 31, 2008

National Pride

I've never been much for crowds. Even when I was young and lived in New York, I seldom went to Times Square New Years Eve. But last week, along with what seemed like most of Nanjing, I turned out for the Olympic torch parade. The crowd was thick, and while the People's Army and People's Police were on hand, they did little more than smile benignly. Their American counterparts would have been more active in
crowd control. But in a nation of 1.3 billion, people know how to behave in a crowd, and I saw no problems. Didn't see the torch either, but the spirit of hope and national pride was amazing.



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