Lafayette, we aren’t there yet

It
was a long time ago — in emotional distance more than in years.

            On June 7, 1825, the Marquis de
Lafayette stopped in downtown Rochester aboard an Erie Canal barge. An “estimated
ten thousand cheering citizens” for the “Nation’s Honored Guest” were “double
the town’s population,” write historians Blake McKelvey and Ruth
Rosenberg-Naparsteck. Honored guest indeed: Without French support and the
likes of Lafayette, the American saga would have had quite a different
prologue.

            Today the French are under fire for
not aiding us in war. The terms have been reversed, of course: America is no
longer the mythical scrappy kid; it’s the global hegemon and self-employed
hired gun.

            So it’s painful to think how a
modern Lafayette might be greeted here.

American
officials certainly haven’t been making too good an impression in France lately. And this
touches things cultural as well as political.

            For example, George W. Bush offended
many in France (and here) when he mocked an American reporter who dared address
President Jacques Chirac in French. “That’s very good,” sneered Bush. “The guy
[i.e. the reporter] memorizes four words and he plays like he’s
intercontinental. I am impressed. Que bueno! Now I’m literate in two
languages!”

            The episode was bad enough in
isolation. But it’s still a matter of some embarrassment that the US ambassador
to France doesn’t speak French too well. Okay, Howard H. Leach did embark on
“intensive” language instruction when appointed.

            One wonders how much progress he’s
made. Recently, Le Monde printed
Leach’s letter urging the French to adopt the Bush administration’s Iraq
policy. A footnote explained the letter had been translated into French at the
US embassy in Paris — and apparently not by the ambassador’s hand.

            On this side of the Atlantic, all
things French are under cultural attack. Early this month, New Jersey
restaurateur Anthony Tola dumped hundreds of dollars’ worth of French wine and
champagne down the toilet to protest France’s anti-war position at the United
Nations. According to an AP report, Tola replaced the stock partly with wines
from Australia (whose prime minister, John Howard, is a Bush war ally).

            How many French wine corks are
unpopping in the Rochester area? It’s hard to tell. We called several large
liquor stores here to see how customers were reacting. A large suburban store
and two distributors didn’t return calls. “It’s a non-issue so far,” said an
unidentified person answering the phone at Henrietta Discount Liquor, in a
rushed conversation.

            Near the end of February, WROC-TV
Channel 8 ran a web poll, asking if people would boycott products from France
or Germany because those nations aren’t going along with US demands at the UN.
The unscientific poll, which ran for five days, registered 155 in favor of
boycotting and 139 against.

            On another front, a local
commentator who might be expected to deliver a tongue-lashing held back —
relatively. “It kills me to say it. But I don’t hate them,” wrote Bob Lonsberry
recently. “I don’t think we should change the name of French fries.” (The
delicacy has been rechristened “freedom fries” in some sub-gourmet
establishments.)

            “I’m not sure what is gained by
pouring French wine down the drain,” Lonsberry continued. “I’m not seeing the
point of turning our frustration and anger toward the French. Because, frankly,
they’re not worth it.”

            Lonsberry dissed the French for
“greasy hair and poor hygiene habits,” and because “their women don’t shave.”
And the column ended with nice words for “our warriors.”

This might be
comic if it weren’t connected to real relationships, personal as well as
transoceanic.

            Take Rochester’s long relationship
with the government and people of one French city.

            Rennes officially became Rochester’s
“Sister City” in 1958, says Terry Mathews-DeSant, chair of the Rennes-Rochester
Sister City Committee. “I’ve been involved the whole 45 years,” she says,
adding she’s formed friendships with the mayor of Rennes, his wife, and others
there. The city-to-city relationship actually began in 1956, she says, with a
visit by the Rennes mayor, just a month after President Eisenhower established
“people-to-people” connections for peace.

            Today, says Mathews-DeSant, the
people of Rennes “are very, very anxious to have communication.” They’re also
grateful, she says, for American help given after World War II through the
Marshall Plan. Moreover, she says, contradicting a stereotype some Americans
hold of the French, the people of Rennes are always very welcoming toward
American visitors. (She agrees this stereotyping also harms some Americans’
attitudes toward the Francophone people of Québec.)

            Is today’s political mood raising
barriers, though? “I do fear [it],” says Mathews-DeSant. “I’m uptight about the
attitude everyone is taking about the French.” She finds the attitude strangely
selective, too: “It’s not just the French that are against the war.”

            On May 13, the Rennes-Rochester
relationship will get a boost. According to Mathews-DeSant, local Sister Cities
participants and Rennes officials will rededicate the “Pont de Rennes”
pedestrian/bicycle bridge (formerly the Platt Street Bridge), which crosses the
lower Genesee Gorge at High Falls. The plaque, she says, will give some
background about Rennes and its history with Rochester.

            DeSant notes that beside the name
Pont de Rennes, there’s not much educational material on-site, at present.

Then there’s
the German connection.

            You’d think some Americans might be
nursing grudges based on Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s and Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer’s outspokenness against the Bush war. But the legions of the
prejudiced don’t seem to be going after Germany with the same passion, at least
not on the home front.

            Edie Fuchs, co-chair of the Würzburg-Rochester
Sister City Committee, says she’s heard of nothing comparable to statements or
boycotts against the French. She emphasizes that sister-city links are about
friendship, not politics. “People are the same whether it’s on this side of the
ocean or on that side,” says the native of a town near Hannover, Germany.

            Renaming French fries (not a French
dish in any case) and other such protests are “childish,” says Fuchs. But she
points to some serious business of cultural bridge-building: the Rochester-Novgorod
Sister City relationship, which defied the Cold War and the stereotyping of the
Soviet people.

            But wouldn’t you know? Like the
majority of the world’s people, the Russians today are against Bush’s
warmaking.

This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2003.