Kudos to the American people. We’ve gone on with our lives following the tragic events of Sept. 11. We’re still buying things, eating out and even traveling via planes, trains and automobiles. But there’s a down side to getting "back to normal." It’s called a false sense of security. And that’s the one sense of security Americans should be avoiding.
It’s good and important to feel safe, but how much do our feelings matter if we aren’t truly safe? Safety shouldn’t be based on feelings but on the knowledge that we’ve done what we can to protect ourselves and use caution while continuing to live our lives as fully as we can within the limits life places on us.
That’s not easy to do when the headlines read, "Terror warnings loom," "FBI suspects hijackers took about a dozen test runs," "We’ll return, Taliban declare," and "Stolen cyanide still missing." Yet, it’s important not to tune out such information by labeling it information overload.
Recent news reports suggest people are torn between wanting to know what the government knows and not wanting to know too much. The number of terror warnings that have been released to the public already are probably nothing in comparison to the volumes of threats government officials must sift through each day to determine which are credible. Yet, some people are complaining that these new warnings are too numerous and "just cause a lot of anxiety we don’t need." One person told a Herald columnist he was "getting tired of hearing about it."
Understandable, but unfortunate. We don’t have the luxury of ignoring such threats anymore. Actually, we didn’t have that luxury before. We just thought we did. That’s why they call it a "false sense of security." Terrorism isn’t boring or tedious like a string of traffic jam reports on the evening news. It’s horrifying and it alters lives forever.
If terrorists are going to try something, they’re probably going to attempt it, regardless of how they perceive American readiness. That doesn’t mean we have to sit by and let them do it, though. We have the power to do many things to protect ourselves to the best of our abilities. We can stock emergency supplies in our cars and homes. When we hear about possible threats of terrorists moving into apartments to cause harm, we can resolve to get to know our neighbors — all our neighbors — a little better.
During a period in our country’s history when public information is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, this is no time for public apathy regarding the release of potential terrorist threats. Furthermore, if we can’t handle hearing about such possibilities now, how will we respond when faced with the reality of them?
To be sure, we were already a society living on information overload long before Sept. 11. In fact, many bragged about it. This information, however, is critical. It’s going to take all of us paying attention to it to respond to future attacks and thwart those we can.
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