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Commentary
Well, panic season is here. The visual news media (TV, cable), in their need to fill air-time, are giving national prominence to any event, no matter how trivial, that might be the first hint of another disaster. Our Attorney General tells us that somewhere, he doesn't know where or when, a new attack is being hatched, but not to worry because our FBI is on the job; in the meantime, if we would just agree to give up our civil liberties, everything will be OK.
National Guardsmen in cammies, with M-16s, stand guard at our airports, providing about as much extra security as the minimum-wage baggage screeners who are so good at spotting computers but so bad at spotting weapons. This is just one of the many feel-good but useless measures (including the banning of golf clubs as carry-on luggage) intended to give us the impression that something is being done domestically to make us secure.
Anthrax is the scare du jour. As a terror weapon, it lacks the qualities of effectiveness, lethality and irreversibility, but it does have the qualities of invisibility and easy dissemination, accounting for its popularity in the media and in the minds of people not used to the accurate assessment of risk. The same advice applies to postal mail as applies to e-mail: don't open attachments, especially from unknown senders.
We seem to be reacting slowly and in measured fashion internationally, to some positive effect. Domestically, our government, our press and, to a much lesser extent our citizenry, seem to be running around frantically, wringing their hands and trying random things to secure some measure of protection from terrorists that have no power to make a serious impact on our lives unless we ourselves disrupt our daily activities. As for our freedoms and the American way of life, terrorists can't take it away, but we can give it away. The risk of death or injury from terrorists remains less than that from hurricanes, automobile accidents, smoking, or even being struck by lightning. Letting that risk color everything we do makes no rational sense.
The loss of life at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was a terrible thing. The families and friends of the victims will bear the scars for the rest of their lives. Our daily actions, however, should be a testament to how these people lived, not how they died.
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