Three days of mourning: An American's view

As some of you know, China has begun three days of official mourning for the thousands who were killed at the Chengdu Earthquake.  Today, my friend Ed Hotard, a businessman who spends a lot of time in China, penned a touching email.  It's a simple message sent from a Blackberry by a guy catching a plane at the airport.  But, i found it extremely touching.

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I just had probably the most moving experience ever.  At 2:38 PM, China started 3 days of mourning with 3 minutes of silence. I am at the new Terminal 3 at Beijing airport and just cleared security when the entire airport stopped operations. No planes were allowed to land or take off. All planes on the taxiway stopped and all other operations stopped. It was very emotional as most of the staff and many of the passengers were in tears (myself included). The brief service was so touching and the Chinese were kind enough to translate to English for the laowais.  The music they played was fitting for the occasion and the outpouring of genuine grief and sadness is difficult to describe.

Most of the Chinese people showed their true emotional side today in expressing their love for their fellow man. The amount of money that has been donated by rich and poor alike is heart touching. From groups of peasant farmers in Hunan and Yunan to entrepreneurs and bankers in Beijing have all given substantial sums of money to help those who have lost all.  And the international community and expats in China have all given so that less fortunate who have no families left will know the love and affection of the global community.

The Government has done a yeomans job of emergency response and in working with the international community to rescue as many people as humanly possible. But in their hearts they know they could not save them all and that pain is obvious. The media has been given free rein to report and in criticize and that they have in questioning why over a 1000 schools collapsed into rubble making school children the greatest tragedy of all.

Please join me in praying for those who have survived in restoring their lives and giving them hope once again. As I sit here writing this I still see people mourning for those who died.

Best,
Ed
Sent by Ed Hotard via BlackBerry from ATT