Somber(-O-Gram)- 17 Sept 2001

Hi everyone,

First of all, please let me express my sorrow for the tragedy and loss we are all suffering. I would like you all to know that Europe feels this keenly as well - here in the Hague, flowers began piling up outside the US Embassy right away, and on Friday we observed three minutes of silence at noon, along with the rest of the EU. Everyone put out their festival Dutch flags, at half mast, and I saw them on every street. There is that whole theory about six degrees of separation, and everyone figures that they had some connection to the victims.

Everyone here has been glued to CNN - on Tuesday evening the streets were incredibly quiet. Agilent immediately verified the safety of all employees in the area, requested across the US that engineers to get out to customer sites and help them handle the load on the phone network, and donated $10,000 to the relief efforts, so I have to hand it to them.

As far as my own feelings, I compulsively checked on my family, even though they are on the West Coast. I emailed my pal in NYC, who turned out to be safe (hooray, Liana!). It is a strange feeling to be so far away when something like this happens to your home country. Also it was strange to know that I couldn't go home, even though I didn't have plans to - for a few days, it just wasn't an option (and seven thousand travelers were stranded in the Netherlands because there were no flights to the US). I also feel very sad about the vandalized mosques and personal attacks in the States, as well as some individuals' and groups' innappropriate use of this disaster to forward their own agendas.

The only other effect on Americans abroad is a possible travel advisory. As you probably know, NATO has invoked Article Five and member states are therefore opening resources to the US for support; in case you didn't know, NATO is located in eastern Brussels, Belgium. Two men were arrested last week in Brussels for having "instruments of war," which meant Uzis in this case, and were apparently plotting some actions against "American interests." Well, my next project is a short stint in Brussels, and it was supposed to start as early as this week (I suspect it is delayed). I have to consider how comfortable I am going there. I do think that I blend in with the general public, and don't stand out as an American, plus I'm not so sure it makes any difference whether I'm there, as compared to here. But I will continue checking the State Department web site and discuss this with my boss.

In other news, Jurjen and I had a fantastic visit in August, and photos are up at http://geocities.datacellar.net/minsq/pacific.html for your viewing pleasure. We have decided to move next year to the Seattle area and are pursuing the INS paperwork to get a K-1 visa for Jurjen, which implies a certain future event (look it up!).

I hope you all can find the time to do something positive over the next few days. On the website forums I frequent at Hissyfit.com, there have been some great discussions on this, so I'll pass along some of the things they've talked about:

1. Donate blood, goods or money: Visit http://www.helping.org/ Beware of charity scams.
2. Counter the hatred in the streets by giving a halal or Middle Eastern butcher or restaurant your business and support. You can start by searching this site: http://www.zabihah.com/
3. Donate to some of the smaller groups that may not get the big corporate donations. Why not send your $300 tax refund?
   • Disaster search dogs http://www.ndsdf.org/
   • Pet rescue http://www.aspca.org/index.html
   • Janitors' union - some were killed, and thousands are suddenly out of jobs http://www.seiu.org/political_action/getinvolved/tragedy_relief.cfm
4. Do what one gal did, and buy a plane ticket you don't need.
5. Buy some stock, if you're in a position to. Or at least don't sell!
6. Wear a red, white and blue ribbon, and display flags. Even better, buy some ribbon and pins and hand out ribbons at work for people to wear.
7. Light a candle for those missing.
8. Make sure the kids understand that they are RE-playing the footage on TV; they may easily think that more is happening and be frightened. Article on kids: http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?cId=635721
9. Call or email your Congressman with your political opinion on the possible war. http://www.house.gov/writerep/
10. Read about the issues involved in fighting terrorism - I found some really good articles here: http://www.salon.com/news/terrorism/index.html

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