The Notre Dame fire is genuine sad news. There is nothing political about it and no one wanted it to happen as far as we know. We're losing a piece of history. Who doesn't have some kind of relationship to the Notre Dame? Even if you're clueless about history, you have a relationship to it if you've seen the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It's one of those places that helps define what Europe is to a lot of people.