#ikWilHelpen .... ich will helfen...

No, it's not exactly German, but aren't the similarities interesting?

People in Belgium Are Using #IkWilHelpen to Offer Aid in the Wake of the Brussels Attacks

By Marie Solis March 22, 2016

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday morning's attacks in Brussels' Zaventem airport and the city's Maalbeek Metro station that reportedly left at least 34 dead and 230 injured, many people in the surrounding area are still struggling to find safety.

In response, Twitter users have started the hashtag #IkWilHelpen, or "I want to help," to spread the word that not just their thoughts and prayers are with those in need, but that they'll lend a hand. 

Many people are offering not just a ride, but are opening up their homes to anyone who might need shelter.

As to the situation itself, check out Mark Patinkin's column in ProJo today: 

Mark Patinkin: Cruz, Trump playing into terrorists' hands

Sen. Ted Cruz

                     By Mark Patinkin  Journal Columnist

Posted Mar. 24, 2016 @ 9:00 pm

Somewhere, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi heard Ted Cruz’s call to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. and no doubt thought to himself — “Perfect."

I'm guessing he thought the same when Donald Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants.

Because al-Baghdadi and ISIS know one of the challenges they face in their jihad against America isn't just our military — it's our ability to assimilate. And create loyal Americans of all faiths and creeds.

 That’s why it's harder here to recruit converts to radical Islam than in many European nations.

Of course, there will always be terrorists, as we saw in San Bernardino and at the Boston Marathon.

But analysts say the threat is greater in places like France and Belgium because those nations have failed to assimilate their Muslim populations. The jihadists in Brussels and Paris, it's said, came out of isolated neighborhoods where Muslims have long felt like unwelcome outsiders.

It's different here. Keith Ellison, the only Muslim member of Congress, has said the Muslim neighborhoods he represents in the Minneapolis area speak proudly of being Americans first.

It's not by accident — it springs from the vision of our founders who created a nation that, by way of inclusions, almost impossibly melds every faith and background into one.

It is why 10 percent of American doctors are Muslim, 30 reps in congress are Hispanic, a son of a Syrian immigrant founded Apple Computer and an African American is president.

We are almost all of us sons and daughters of immigrants, and yes, most of our forbears faced prejudice when they first arrived, but with an important distinction.

Especially now, American bigotry is unofficial, from the street. What overcomes it is a government framed around laws that require acceptance and equal treatment for all.

That’s why it’s dangerous when our leaders speak against those principles, and laws. That's what ISIS wants.

What Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump seem to miss is that the complex challenge of global terrorism requires the wisdom to know not just when to act — but when not to.

Acting in the wrong way encourages jihadi radicalism. That's what the Iraq war did in the Middle East and what would happen here if we punished Muslims as a group.

Years ago when I went abroad as a journalist to cover religious violence, I often heard a certain question, in Beirut during the war between Christians and Muslims and in Northern Ireland when Protestants and Catholics were at violent odds.

In both places, people asked how we do it in America — avoid such divisions?

The answer, I think, isn't just that this is the land of opportunity — it's also the land of acceptance, where newcomers have a shot at becoming just as American as those who've been here for generations.

Of course, there are many ways America has to actively fight terror: tracking Islamic radicals, breaking up cells, working to degrade ISIS by killing their leaders and supporting the local fighters taking them on.

But an equally important weapon is depriving the enemy of what they want most — an alienated Muslim population here, as they have in many European nations.

We shouldn't give them that.

We should give them what they don't want and we've long had — a land where all faiths and creeds have a reason to feel welcomed, and American.