Recently, Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced the implementation of a terrorist alert warning system. It is defined by colors that correspond to different levels of seriousness:

Red – Severe

Orange – High

Yellow – Elevated

Blue – Guarded

Green – Low

Who thought this up? It sounds like something from a Doppler radar screen. With the decline in math and reading skills over the last decade, I can understand why numbered (1-5) or lettered (A-E) levels would not work very well. But these colors are all wrong. Most people know that red and yellow make orange. So far, so good. But yellow and blue make green. That means that blue and green are backwards. Besides that, red is for hot and blue is for cold. Nobody really knows the difference between critical care and intensive care; so how can anyone be expected to remember the difference between severe and high, or guarded and low? I foresee an elevated level of confusion with this system.

Therefore, I propose the following rating system:

High

Medium-High

Medium

Medium-Low

Low

I cannot take credit for this idea; the manufacturer of my kitchen stove came up with it. But I immediately saw the beauty in it: nothing really has to correspond to anything. Even my cat understands the difference between high and low, as long as she’s on top of the stove!

Everett