This is an email that I received from a friend who made contact with an associate in France about the current situation:

QUOTE:

Thanks for your appreciation. I think european people have a more sensible view of all this, perhaps because history is more present here, because we see every day in the architecture, the languages, remains of past times of fear and violence. Also Europe, as it was for a long time a populated area of the world, had to cope with ressource starvation and, as a consequence, choose a model of development more respectful of environment.

And it's true that, among Europe, french people are often on the first line
to such movements, because our national character is to let ideas spread
and inspire people's political way of acting. You will find in no country
in the world such a taste for philosophical discussion, even in the more
popular bars of the smallest villages. And Jules Caesar, who conquered the gaule two thousand years ago, already wrote that about it's inhabitants.

I hope that people like you, who can see the consequences of the Bush
administration's policy will have their neibours, friends, co-workers and
families know that there is absolutely no "anti-american" feeling in the
french population. Just a few days ago, I could hear an american pilot
interviewed in the air show of Paris - Le Bourget, who said he was very
surprised : the french visitors were very friendly with him, though he
expected that he could be bashed.

This is a deep feeling here, that we have a debt to the american people,
from the two world wars. And this is one of the reasons to help them make up their mind about what did and does the Bush administration, and finally help America to get back to the situation which should be it's in the
nations' choir.

God bless the american people and if necessary show to it's errors to those who still close their eyes.