Outis

We arrived in Madrid just over a year ago. We fly back to the United States tomorrow afternoon.

It’s been hard work.

But — with just hours to spare — we are happy to announce: mission accomplished.

Just kidding, of course. But, seriously, this is a really, really, really, really big deal.

Lunch patrons at J. Blanco gather around the television to watch live coverage of ETA’s announced disarmament this afternoon.

Personal Postscript

I first came to Spain as a refugee from Cuba in 1979. That year was the worst for the victims of ETA and for Spain, in general. I can vividly remember walking to school with my father and stumbling upon a bomb blast two walks away from our apartment. Two decades have elapsed. Spain has not only been able to contain ETA, it appears to be on the verge of defeating a terrorist group with an fantastical ideology loosely based on outdated political grievances.

Today, we in the U.S. have much to learn from Spain.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Politics, Personal, Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.