We're Okay--Pray for our Friends

We are writing to thank our loved ones for your thoughts and expressions of concern and grief and hope this week.  Shelly and I are fine, but we ask our friends and family to keep our diplomat friends in your thoughts and prayers.  The events at Embassies around the world this week has our entire State Department  community reeling.  The killings in Benghazi were tragic, but they did not end this violent episode.  At this writing, there have been demonstrations or attacks at over a dozen U.S. missions worldwide. We have friends, or friends of friends, in many of them.  Certainly we can identify with every one of them, as they do the same jobs we do, day in and day out.   Even in places that are relatively quiet (as our post seems to be), everyone in and around the embassy must be more alert, vigilant, and prepared for what could happen.  Even more than personal safety, though, many of us have thought long and hard about the senselessness of it. The notion that the rage and violence is directed at diplomats abroad because we are nearby and we are symbols.  Secretary Clinton said it far better than I ever could:  "It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions.  These are places whose very purpose is peaceful:  to promote better understanding across countries and cultures.  All governments have a responsibility to protect those spaces and people, because to attack an embassy is to attack the idea that we can work together to build understanding and a better future."

Shelly and I are okay, please pray for our friends . . . and our world.