For me, personally, September 11, 2001, changed my outlook on life in this way: I have found a cause that I am willing to die for.
No, I haven’t signed up for the military. My knees are in poor shape, limiting my ability to run and jump. My 1-year-old baby needs a father around as long as possible. And, our government is not seeking draftees.
There’s another way I feel that I can give my life over to this war effort. I refuse to live my life any differently than I did before Sept. 11. If that means I die on an airplane, fine. If that means a bomb goes off at the mall while I’m shopping for Christmas, fine. If that means I inhale anthrax opening what appears to be a normal letter, fine.
I refuse to change my normal activities. I refuse to hunker down to save my life, or the lives of my family.
Remember the Israelis who died at that night club due to a terrorist’s bomb (I think it was a car bomb)? I respect that. They were doing what they do, even though Israel is a target of constant terrorism. We can learn from the Israelis in this manner, IMO.
The way I look at it, if I do die from terrorism, I am no different than the soldier in the Middle East who dies in this war. He is fighting for my freedom. I am enjoying the freedom he is fighting for. We need to succeed at both ends of the spectrum.
I fear that America, in general, however, is overreacting, hunkering down, as a result of this wave of terrorism.
People are scared of airplane travel. People are scared of anthrax, which has killed all of four people so far. Did you know about 40,000 people die in automobile wrecks each year? That’s many more than died on Sept. 11 at the WTC. Yet, most people are unafraid to drive. Many people have no problem travelling 70-plus mph on our highways, tailgating and swerving through traffic if necessary to save a minute or two on their commutes.
If I were a postal worker in a metropolitan area, specifically Washington and New York, I’d be particularly worried about anthrax. And we need to counter this method of distributing the deadly substance to try to keep these people safe and stop this threat. And we need to beef up airport security. Etc.
But, we don’t need mass hysteria. We don’t need to fear for our lives because four people died and others hospitalized. This anthrax threat is working because it has successfully terrorized people. My coworker argued with me that she feels the media has gone too far in its constant coverage of this threat. I finally see her side. It’s not that it shouldn’t be reported. It’s that it’s getting a disproportianate amount of coverage. And some people are worried that their flu symptoms could possibly be caused by anthrax. Even if they received no suspicious packages.
It’s a tricky think finding that line between informing the public and alarming the public. So, I’m not angry with the media. I’m more angry with American people in general. We need to show the world that we’re strong-willed and willing to die by doing no more than living our lives the way we’ve always lived them.
Is that so hard?
), our economy suffers.