For the first time in my life a world leader has apologized
to me in public. Over the years there
are a lot of apologies that I wished I could have heard from these guys, but on Sunday I finally got
one.
Waiting for the Chancellor (JWB, 2012) |
Unless it’s raining or there is a threat of seismic or
volcanic activity I generally ride my bike down to the River Walk just below Michigan Avenue in order to
give river tours for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. I was almost down to my assigned boat two
days ago when I ran up against a formidable barricade of Secret Service agents.
Dozens of us were stopped on both sides of the blockage as
we waited for a delegation to board one of the First Lady boats for a river
cruise. So we stood—joggers, bikers,
causal walkers, and pram-pushers. All of
us reflected in the sunglasses of the ecret Service detail.
Before too long there was movement and the delegation
emerged from beneath Wacker Drive and began to board the boat. The I-Phones came out but many users, I’m
fairly confident, were not sure who it was they were snapping away at.
The dignitary turned out to be Angela Merkel, the Chancellor
of Germany since 2005. As she took her
place on the top deck of the First Lady, she looked to her left and saw all of
us waiting to be about our morning’s business.
Chancellor Merkel (in pink) after the apology (JWB, 2012) |
Facing us, she spread her arms out in a gesture of apology
and mouthed the words, “I’m so sorry.
Thank you.” At least that’s close
to what she said. It could easily have
been, “Don’t shoot, boys. They’re on our
side.” But her body language was that
of apology, and I’m going with that.
The coolest part of the whole deal was the information that
I found out 15 minutes after the boat sailed.
The narrator for Chancellor Merkel’s Architectural tour of the Chicago
River?
Helmut Jahn.
Now T-H-A-T is an architectural tour.
By the way . . . the NATO summit has concluded, and
Chicagoans can now go back to doing what we do best—basking in a sunny season
in this city in a garden.
Now that the whole thing is over, I have just one
observation. For me, aside from the
remarkable restraint that the Chicago police showed, my most pronounced
impression was the difference between the protestors of the New Millennium and
those nefarious nabobs of negativism of my generation.
Yahoo News Image |
Back in the sixties they took to the streets, smashed
windows, threw projectiles, turned over police cars and set them on fire. The time was right for violent
revolution. Over the past several days
we have really seen none of that.
I suspect that is, from the looks of the video, because all
of these folks are so focused on capturing the scene on their I-Phones that
there is no time for real mayhem.
Once again, a big thanks to Steve Jobs.
1 comment:
You have captured it perfectly!
Post a Comment