A message from Germany

Greetings!

This is a message from my old roomate from Germany who was an exchange student here in Portland 7 years ago. I thought I would share it with you (he said it was ok). Enjoy!

Thanks,

Tim

"Hallo Tim,

late but hopefully not too late I want to express my condolences concerning

the horrifying acts that happened last Tuesday. I hope nobody of your family

nor friends got harmed or worse. Certainly, America is big but New Jersey is

close to Manhattan. Although, we in Germany have not been hit directly, we

instantly felt and still feel very shocked, frightened and paralyzed at the

same time. For me knowing you, my proud American friend, and having looked

up tourist-like into the clouds between the world trade twin towers in 1995,

the tragedy meant more to me as it maybe would have in case some European

capital city had been hit. I am happy that all six political parties

assembling the German National Parliament (socialist to mid-right) spoke

with one voice and completely condemn the acts that were inflicted on your

nation in delusive peacetime. At the same time my friends and I are afraid

of an overreaction of the western alliance. A war is not the solution. This

and the overall situation is the number one topic at all pubs. You can feel

the uneasiness on peoples faces; radio and TV stations had changed their

program but have come back to normality by now. I am not a Christian, I

cannot pray, but my thoughts are with the victims. I don’t know if you hear

a lot about Germany these days – we are only one out of 18 NATO-members. If

it wasn’t that tragic the situation could be quite exciting here now.

I told my mom I was going to write you on this – she wishes to say hallo to

you too, as well as to your mom."