Bomb Scare

With all the craziness of the recent London blasts, everyone has been on high alert. Anything suspicious, however small or minor, is thoroughly checked out because we simply cannot take any chances. Just yesterday, the airport here in MN was temporarily evacuated. Turns out that trained bomb-sniffing dogs detected two separate scents at the Humphrey Terminal (which, btw, is the terminal where I will be flying out of). As the dogs went on their daily rounds, they are trained to sit if and when they detect bomb-like residue. For some reason, I imagine it like the cartoons when the search dogs find what they're looking for and freeze up their entire body from tip of its nose to the end of its tail to point in the direction, like an arrow, to whatever it is they found. One dog sat in the baggage claim area and another sat in front of a vending machine. The bomb squad was immediately called in and the airport was quickly evacuated. Fortunately nothing was found. Although there are countless possibilities why the dogs stopped (and btw, they are NOT ruling out error on the dogs' part), one theory that may explain the situation is fireworks. Maybe someone who happened to handle fireworks came to the airport with residue still on his/her hands and went to the vending machine.

On the evening news, they interviewed people for their reactions. Rubberneckers never fail to surprise me. I mean, I am guilty of doing it, but if and when there's an evacuation of a possible bomb, I ain't going to stand around to see what's going to happen. That's exactly what this one guy said. I don't know exactly where he was, but when he was interviewed, it seemed like he was quite a ways away from the terminal. He said once he heard "bomb," he started running. When asked what other people around him did, he just answered, "They just stood there."

This is just another example that bomb scares like these are very real. It's not just something we see on the news anymore and the possibilities that it COULD happen to us are just as real.

On a Much Lighter Note...
*email received from The ONE campaign

Dear Friend:

This is a big thank you to all 1.5 million of you who joined together as ONE to do something extraordinary.

From the 500,000 letters you sent to President Bush to Live 8 in Philadelphia to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, you called on eight men to do more to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, and they heard your call. In Scotland this past Friday, overcoming the shadow of a tragic day in London, President Bush joined G8 leaders in an unprecedented deal to cancel debts and double aid to Africa.

For African nations fighting poverty and corruption, this means a $25 billion increase in aid and wiping out 100% of their debts. With this funding, Africa can halve deaths from malaria, put millions of children into school, and 10 million people across the world will have access to lifesaving AIDS drugs. Behind each of these numbers is one person, one life that will be changed forever.

For the first time ever, everyday Americans like you joined together to take a seat at the negotiating table, asking the world's most powerful leaders to do more to help the world's poorest people. Because you signed the ONE Declaration, wore the white band and forwarded emails to friends about ONE, you made a huge step toward making poverty history. We've come so far and still have far to go.

This agreement is a real victory for Africa - but promises made of words will only become promises for a generation if we keep watching, asking and acting. Much more needs to be done in Washington DC to turn these commitments into lifesaving programs, and the world must take new steps to make trade fair. More meetings will take place this year in New York and Hong Kong where a comprehensive debt-aid-trade deal can be reached and end global AIDS and extreme poverty in our time.

We can be that great generation. As ONE, let's keep up the positive pressure and make 2005 the year we joined together to make history.

Thank you,
The ONE Team

Read more about the One campaign.