Gary,
I understand people's reaction to the WTC tragedy, but it's not rational. If you catch a flight, and it happens to be the (rough estimate) one in ten million flights that have been hijacked in the last ten years, then your luck ran out. Because of one very horrific incident, the country is acting like there is a terrorist living on every city block. It's constantly reinforced by the media, by the government, and by friends and family. Nobody measures the extent of the threat, with the horror of the WTC permanently burned into everyone's retina, they just want it gone.
Nothing has changed in the last week, your odds remain the same. But the perception has taken 1000% turn.
And the results are devastating. Freedom, quality of life, fear, and the economy. Recession is assured; I've heard folks I respect talk about the D word (depression), as a small but significant risk. Things could spiral out of control rather quickly, reminds me of what someone once said in a similar situation, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
Extra security and intelligence, yes. Retaliation, yes. But this unrealistic hysteria over the terrorist threat could leave a terrorist threat the very least of our problems.
John |
