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American Morning
New Zealanders Compile Book of Letters Expressing Solidarity with American People
Aired February 14, 2002 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "From New Zealand With Love," that is the message Mary and Charlie Hobbs have brought with them to New York City. They have compiled a book of letters from their fellow New Zealanders expressing solidarity with the American people. And showing us what a small world it is, after all.
Yesterday Mary and Charlie were at the U.N. Today they will be at the White House, and right now they are with us. Good morning.
MARY HOBBS, LETTERS TO NY AND AMERICA FROM NEW ZEALAND WITH LOVE: Good morning Paula.
CHARLIE HOBBS, LETTERS TO NY AND AMERICA FROM NEW ZEALAND WITH LOVE: Good morning.
ZAHN: Congratulations. The book is beautiful.
M. HOBBS: Thank you very much.
ZAHN: What prompted you to write it?
M. HOBBS: I think we wanted to celebrate all that was great and is great about our friends in America and the American people. We didn't want to dwell on the tragedy, but we wanted to build on the spirit of how fantastic Americans are, and that's - so that's what we did.
ZAHN: We're going to put up on the screen right now some of the pictures of folks who wrote letters in this book, and you really got a diverse group of people to participate. Talk to us a little bit about that Charlie.
C. HOBBS: Well you know, we could have had - we could have produced a book 20 times thicker than this because there were so many people that wanted to support what we were doing, and the criteria was that the people had to - the inspiration and the cause that we were looking for, people that had the passion with what American people were doing, and we wanted to communicate that we really - we're friends, and we wanted to communicate that.
ZAHN: Let me read for our audience now some small parts of some of the letters that are included in the book, and there was one letter written by children at a small school in Rosland (ph), New Zealand, and we're going to try to get this text up now. They said, "Be brave. Everybody is thinking of you all. Start life again. Try your best to carry on".
And then you had another letter from a group of firemen, one of whom writes, "if we could be there with you, taking one of your shifts off with you, we'd be there. From the first day you've never been alone. You're now alone now".
It's really quite beautiful. Now what happened as a result of this firemen letter? Didn't you eventually get hooked up with someone at a firehouse here in New York as a result of that letter?
M. HOBBS: We did. Captain Phil Monday (ph) and he's from the Brooklyn firehouse, and we had a wonderful meeting with him.
C. HOBBS: It's just awesome, very inspirational.
ZAHN: Was he the one that ended up taking you down to ground zero?
M. HOBBS: Yes he did ...
C. HOBBS: Yes.
M. HOBBS: ... on his day off too, actually.
ZAHN: And what happened when you went downtown? You took the book with you, right?
M. HOBBS: We did.
C. HOBBS: Yes. Yes. We met up with policemen, firemen, rescue workers. We showed them the book and you know, they looked at it and they went wow, this is - this is fantastic. You guys put this together? And we said yes, we're your friends. You know, we're here to help, and it was - it was just beautiful.
ZAHN: And you actually read parts of the book, did you not, when you went down there?
M. HOBBS: We did. Well actually they read it, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) relatives of people who were lost. I think - I think the basic point, Paula, is that when the chips are down and when your friends go through a hard time, and in this case, it was a country, it's important to stand beside your friends, and so, that's what we're doing with this book.
ZAHN: Yes we're looking at all the faces and voices now of the folks who participated. Who's this man?
M. HOBBS: He is Larry Jameson (ph). He'll probably be here in New York next month with the prime minister, I think.
ZAHN: And he was one of the group of firemen that wrote the letter ...
M. HOBBS: Exactly.
ZAHN: ... honoring the bravery of those ...
C. HOBBS: Yes.
ZAHN: ... that were doing rescue work here and continuing to work around the clock at ground zero. But what a wonderful gesture. I'm glad we could talk about it on Valentine's Day.
C. HOBBS: Thank you.
ZAHN: Well you have great affection for our country. Are you thinking about moving here?
M. HOBBS: We love America.
C. HOBBS: We sure do.
M. HOBBS: And also I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that there's a lot of books within America about the spirit of America and patriotism, but this comes from half a world away, so it was our intention to bring the world closer together.
ZAHN: Well congratulations ...
C. HOBBS: Thank you.
ZAHN: ... and good luck at the White House.
C. HOBBS: Thank you.
ZAHN: You may actually sneak in a visit with the president later today. Keep us posted.
M. HOBBS: We will.
ZAHN: Travel well.
(CROSSTALK)
ZAHN: Thank you again.
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