Freedom of speech, fear of speech

The safety of culture...

I am waiting to hear news about the Pope (as are most Catholics).  On CNN I get glimpses of other countries around the world that are in vigil as well...  I watch these people and I wish I was with them.  I'm sure here in California there are many places I can probably go to feel spiritually connected.  But I also have a tentative attitude towards really telling anyone what I feel.

If I were in Argentina, pretty much everyone would be vigil.  Everyone would either be praying, or planning on attending Mass or something.  And it would be rare for it to be any differently.  The mood would be lightly similar to how the U.S. came together after 9/11 -- that feeling of unspoken comraderie, of being emotionally connected to everyone.

Unfortunately (because I love the U.S. so much), I can't totally say that I feel at home at the moment.  I am worried about offending anyone, or alienating friends or whatever.  And I so badly wish I could just step outside my door and talk to a neighbor about what the Pope means to us, how he touched our lives by words or actions, of how we remember when he first became Pope, or of how my mom always had some kind of crush on him... 

It does sadden me to be missing that sense of "we're all in this".  It saddens me to see that some people may not care at all.  But then again, I was pissed off at the world when my dad died and no one in the streets of Buenos Aires seemed to notice...