Safer, Safer, Safer, we all have to be safer

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay. This is a rant because I am sick and tired of hearing that we all expect the US Government to make our lives safer.

Hey, driving down the road isn’t safe. Shit, even taking a shower isn’t safe. People are injured and some die from slipping and falling in the fucking shower.

Shit, we can get the flu which can turn in to deadly pnemonnia (sp). But you don’t hear people screaming at the government to make us safer from the flu. We accept the risk if we choose not to take the flu shot. Some risk getting sick from the flu shot as well.

Airlines. Ugh, I never felt those tin cans in the air where very safe anyway, so having air-marshalls, strengthened cockpits and all the other stuff they are attempting to do will not help my plane if flying through a windshear. It happened here in 1991. Two miles from the airport a plane went nose first in the ground. No one survived. It’s a risk. It’s just more hieghtened now that the attacks happened.

Okay, so you undercook a chicken – you may get salmonella. If can get hepatitis from eating at a restaurant. You can get hit by a car in a cross walk. You could die from CO poisoning in your home.

I could go on.

The thing is, we have to quit focusing on SAFER. Life isn’t safe, it never has been and never will be.

Safer – it’s all I hear.

Here’s what I have to say about “being safer.” Stay in your home, never leave. Turn off all electricity and gas. Get rid of all matches…oh wait, better yet, just bunker yourself in a bomb shelter. Pray that none of the food and water you brought with you doesn’t have a small microbe to make you ill and you die because you can’t get to a doctor.

Okay, here’s what normal people do. Yes, I am somewhat normal, occassionally I flake out, I know this but sheesh, this is histeria gone out of control.

Think about the issues confronting YOU. If you work in a high risk area or building, ask yourself if working there gives you the satisfaction that outweighs the risks.

If you live in Buttfuck, Kansas or even some more populated areas, you have very little reason to be afraid of terroristic activities. If you live in New York, you probably risk getting mugged or raped more than you do getting anthrax.

Life can’t be safer, there’s just more for people to think about. Shit, I would be more afraid of a vicious dog than an envelope or even (as chicken shit as I am about planes) an airplane.

It’s not safer, it can’t be, it’s just a new risk we need to learn to contend with.

2

And damnit, I need to learn how to type better, GOD the typos and stupid words that don’t belong.

3

Well, to avoid paranoia-don’t look up Smallpox on the internet. The pictures…ooooh gross!!!

Sorry, I don’t know if that’s what you meant-but it’s freaking me out. I don’t feel safe right now.

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:: applauds techchick, then goes off to run with scissors ::

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I know where I would feel safest.

In techchick’s arms. Sigh :slight_smile: :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

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I can sum up my feelings on this with a small illustration.
A colleague at work was talking to her grade school age son about the events of 9/11. She explained to him what had happened in straightforward terms and then asked him if he was worried the same thing might happen here. He aptly replied “But mom, this is Kentucky.”
This kid is a freakin’ genius.

7

You just gotta take responsibility for your own self. That’s why I never leave the house unless I’m cloaked in six or seven layers of bubble wrap and waving a naked katana.

Seriously, though, people just worry about the most crazy ways to die. I’ve got a friend who drinks heavily and is overweight and yet thinks I’m a maniac for skydiving on occasion. I reckon that I’ll probably live until I’m 75 or so and then just drop dead, barring some random accident.

(Guin, you wanna know some REAL scary shit? Those smallpox pictures are creepy, but if I were you I’d be more concerned about some unknown arenavirus that appears out of the blue and liquefies us all.)

8

This need to feel safe is the effect of one simple emotion: terror. The bottom line is, who is in control?

The terrorists think they’ve got the best of us. My response is Bwahahaha, is that the best you can do? And you claim to have God on your side? Psha.

9

Precisely, you said it all in a short sentence.

We control us and how we live our lives. Nothing can make us “safe.” We live our lives accepting risk and go on. We can’t allow the terrorists to make us feel less safe than we did before 9-11.

I am tired of hearing about this and that and the other, only pounding a few isolated cases of anthrax in the ground. Our media and our government are giving people more reason to be afraid than is needed. Good information is warranted, pushing so much out there that makes people scared even more is ridiculous.

We may have problems associated with the attacks and the anthrax cases but we can’t be so damned focused that we sterilize our entire society over it. There are other things that still remain as problems in our society.

I went to a football game a couple of weeks ago, it was fun. I still go to the grocery store, not afraid of some wacko running through it with powder coming from somewhere. I drive to places I would normally go. I go see people I would normally see. I even open my mail with my bare hands!

My world is pretty damn safe, as safe as usual, safe as it’s always been. We all just have a few more things to work with in our psyche.

Oh and as far as other biological attacks. Sure, it’s possible. But again, one might as well bunker in a bomb shelter if they are afraid and in the mean time let the terrorists win.

I would rather live for now than worry about the possibility that something will end my life. But I always remember to drive a little better, to take care of myself when I get a cold, to do what I can to make me safer. But it’s all normal living.

10

Not really scared scared, just saying that the smallpox pictures are so gruesome, like afraid of the dark closet gruesome.