Message of goodwill and peace from Dresden

Re “Rebirth rising from a rain of fire,” Opinion, Dec. 25

Gregory Rodriguez’s column was the perfect Christmas gift. In June 2004, my British partner and I scrapped our planned tourist activities to witness a historic moment. Amid thousands of Dresdeners, we watched the English cupola crafted in Coventry lifted onto the Dresden Frauenkirche. A speech by the Duke of Kent (in German) and music by the Kreuzkirche Choir and a brass choir added stirring closure to the pain from Dresden’s and Coventry’s destruction.

As an American daughter of immigrants from Dresden, I felt as one with the onlookers. To paraphrase Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, I was a citizen of Dresden, and a world citizen. The message truly was, peace on Earth, goodwill to all people.

NAOMI STEPHAN

Ojai