A warning given, ignored

We were wrapping pennies Sunday afternoon when we heard the ominous braap-braap-braap on the television. Was it an announcement of an impending storm? Had something terrible happened?

We both briefly thought about when that same grating sound preceded the announcement of the Challenger explosion and more recently when that noise announced the horror of what has become known as 9/11. We stopped what we were doing and listened.

Soon the announcer came on the air. The national security code had been upped from yellow to orange or was it from purple to chartreuse? I never can get the colors straight. There followed a reference to al-Qaida and three specific buildings named as potential targets.

A reporter asked how these buildings were going to be attacked. The answer was by car bomb or by a suicide bomber.

It may be crass to say so but I truly wish these people would learn to commit suicide the way Americans do – alone and in private. I also wish they could understand that all their so-called heroic acts only serve to irritate us into attacking and killing their loved ones.

I realize they hate us for our affluence and arrogance, among many other things, but car bombs or any other type of bombs are not going to make anybody suddenly come to the realization that they should change their wicked ways and adopt the beliefs and lifestyles of the bombers. Therefore, in my opinion, their deaths are for nothing. Their lives are wasted.

So what are we supposed to do about all this? How are we to react to this threat to our country? Is there a way to prevent the attacks or minimize the damages?

Should we form long lines at the gas stations, buy all the milk, bread and toilet paper we can find? Do we load our guns, barricade the doors and huddle in fear? Should we report suspected terrorists to our local police force? Is there a ban on the materials used to make bombs? If we work in the targeted buildings do we get an extended vacation until the suspects are captured and the threat is neutralized?

Nope. What we are told to do is to go about our daily lives. If we suspend our activities out of fear then “they” have won. After all the talk of certain doom we are to do nothing. Its like being told there is a hungry lion wandering through town then being told to go about our business as if it wasn’t there. It seems asinine to me to be warned of danger then told to essentially ignore it.

I don’t have any answers. I figure that is what we pay our leaders for.

They are supposed to have more information and resources at their disposal than the average person. Apparently they can’t come up with any practical suggestions either.

There have been so many of these security alerts that it reminds me of the little boy who cried wolf. I am afraid that some day we will meet the same fate as that foolish child when the real wolf bares his teeth and does more damage than we can ever imagine.

However, since I consider myself a good American I will do as I’m told and not change my way of life for yet another ambiguous threat to a part of the country far removed from here. I will be aware of the danger and ignore it.

We resumed wrapping pennies and the television went back to its usual mind-numbing programming.

Presumably the terrorists resumed planning their assault and life went on as if there had been no rude interruption to our day.[[In-content Ad]]