. . .point of order: y’all misquoted that Dylan Thomas Poem. The last two lines are:
I’d type the rest, but, hey, the nitpicking of a Dylan Thomas fan isn’t really what you’re looking for here.
jarbaby, I know how you feel. The idea of a terrorist attack (in my case, biological) is something that scares the everlovin’ shit outta me. Nukes and other bombs are pretty up there, too. Then, I thought about what I could do differently to reduce the threat of these things to me. Answer: nothing. So I get scared, sometimes, but I jolt myself out of it. A “shit or get off the pot” thing.
I can’t tell you to do that in good conscience, though. I don’t think that the end of the world–or anything like it–will come. Not this way. Any group to attack us with a nuke or a disease would be dead. Melted. Along with the people that the group is fighting for. A terrorist is willing to write off his own life. Writing off the people or cause he’s fighting for? Not so common.
Suicide bombings…well, who knows with those. Suffice it to say that the odds of you being killed in a suicide bombing, even if they did start here, are not overwhelming. Less than a car accident, which I think is a worse way to go.
So, basically, I’m telling you it’ll be okay. I know, college chick not really holding the same weight as your dad…but I think it will be.
I do a pretty good job of going through my day just accepting the fact that there are things I can’t control. What I am having a hard time with is knowing what to say to my kids when this stuff bothers them. I don’t want their lives filled with fear and stress this early, especially my youngest who is only 11. So what do you tell them?
I, like all Londoners, lived through the eighties and nineties knowing that an IRA-placed car bomb or bomb on the underground could take us out at any time. It becomes such a way of life to see the “unattended baggage” signs and boarded up dustbins that you end up not even thinking about it. After all, we’ve recently had a series of terrible rail crashes and thousands die horribly on the roads every year - how is one more possible way to die any different? It’s still not a very likely scenario.
In terms of terrorism, it’s those in the middle east I feel sorry for. Imagine knowing that pretty much every day someone is going to try to explode a bomb in your major urban area. Now that’s scary.
So in many ways jar, what you’re coming to terms with is not actually the abnormal, it’s the norm. Which may in itself be a dreadful thing to contemplate but it does give one some kind of reassurance that billions of people manage to live their lives under a permanent cloud without giving their oppressors too much satisfaction by worrying about it. Soldiering on, so to speak. You can do it too.
Now what did Pratchett say? Ah yes - better to light a flamethrower than to curse the dark.
I’m not sure this will help or not Jarbabyj or not…
The chance of a terrorist attack, suicide bombing, backpack nuke, chemical or biological attack or anything like that is the SAME as it was before 9/11.
The only things that have changed is that the vast majority of the American public is actively thinking about that chance that it could happen again. Well we also killed off a large chunk of Al-queda (or however you spell their name).
Nobody thought twice about terrorism after the first WTC bombing, or Oklahoma city. Well not many people did.
I guess it goes down to the trend of americans not to view what happens in the rest of the world as possibly happening to us. But now we’re starting to realize that it can.
If you stop to look at the actual chances of a major terrorist attack (we’re talking CNB attack here) we’re probably less likely to have one of those than before our overthrow of the Taliban.
The advantages that the US has always enjoyed in making us safe from invasion also work to protect us from terrorists.
Distance. We’re seperated by huge oceans from most of the people who would want to launch a terrorist attack on us. With international travel how it is, it makes it progressively harder for terrorists to travel which each country they go through. Also, our nearest neighbors don’t give a damn. Look at Isreal and the Palestinians (spelling?) its a lot easier to drive up to a military checkpoint and blow yourself up than it is to travel to a country with a flight to the US and fly over here and build a bomb.
Economy. Don’t kill the cash cow. You may not like the US but we have the money. And american citizens do give money to various terrorist or political groups that work with terrorist organizations (IRA). That and we hold considerable power in the form of humanitarian aid.
Military. Iraq and the Taliban are both very visible examples of what we do when we’re upset. In both cases we used a fraction of our total military power and neither country put up any fight. One generally doesn’t anger a country that can squash you like a bug, and has done squashing before.
About you’re being afraid of terrorist attacks… I’m glad you are getting some general treatment, that will help. But honestly, viewing terrorism is a lot like thinking about crime. We all take steps so we aren’t a victim of crime, we lock doors. Some people avoid bad parts of town late at night, or go with a group of friends. People who think about it take steps to avoid being an easy victim. Does this mean that we worry about getting mugged or raped every waking moment? No, we’re aware that bad things can happen, but we know there are things we can do to minumize that happening.
Personally, none of this bothered me very much. I spent a lot of time in England, a few months right before the gulf war and then again during the BSE scare. I had friends who were in the Isreali military who manned checkpoints and I work in a BSL-4 containment facility (we’re a priority target for a smart terrorist, and I’ve already had to evacuate a few times).
Bad things are going to happen. Most of them you can’t stop. Some of them you can avoid however. But dwelling on it is totally useless. The only was you will ever be totally safe is when you’re dead.
It’s all very simple for me. The threat of terrorist attacks don’t scare me. OK, fine, so I’m living a ways away from the US, but my family and heart is in Chicago. I can honestly say I’d feel the same in Chicago. I just think there are an infinitely more numerous and more probable ways that I’m gonna die than a terrorist attack. The threat of terrorism doesn’t even show up as a blip on my “threat” radar. If that’s a particularly stupid thing to say, so be it. Has the threat of crime kept me from walking home at 2 a.m. several miles in Chicago? Nope. Have traffic accidents kept me from cars? Nope. Have guns, landmines and bullets kept me from going to Kosovo? Nah.
OK. Maybe part of me likes the danger, but it’s all a matter of perspective. For me, living a life of fear is worse than death.
No matter where you are, there is always something to fear. I don’t mean don’t be vigilant or careful, but I think if you let fear run your life, you’re already dead. I think America may be entering a period of adjustment and learning to cope with threats, both vague and immediate, that are everyday in many other parts of the world.
The most surreal and inspiring things I’ve seen in my life were in towns ravaged by war. People just try carrying on their daily lives, despite the bullets, bombs and landmines. One 70-year-old Serb I met in Pakrac, Croatia, refused to leave her home. “Why didn’t you leave, Ljuba, when the Croats retook Western Slavonia?” “Because I have lived always here and I will die here.” This sentiment was echoed by much of the population, regardless of age, and has served to me as an inspiration and model for how to live my life.
(Sorry, I don’t mean to plug my own work, but Ljuba holds a particularly special place in my heart, and I thought the visual may help.)
