Red Alert

With the latest alerts, we should think back about how things used to be. 9-11 was a big deal because it was the first real terrorist act on American soil since, well, who knows when. Americans were used to such problems occurring overseas. Remember all those IRA attacks in England? Perhaps not. After all, it did happen over there.

But back in the 70s, it was common for airplanes to be hijacked. The government wanted the airlines to increase security, but they balked at the idea. Too inconvenient for customers, they said. The event that caused airline security to go from zero to minimal was a hijacking where the hijackers said they would run the plane into the Oak Ridge nuclear facilities. Until then, hijacking was seen as an inconvenience. The plane was typically diverted to Cuba, but no one was hurt.

These days, many passengers are put through a great deal of inconvenience to avoid an attack here or there, which, to me, is a disproportionate response to what's going on. For example, no one much seems to care that a drunk driver could hit them at any time. Somehow, the reassurance of controlling our own cars, and the relative safety of going to work and back day after day makes us think this is highly unlikely. We feel it won't happen to us. It'll happen to someone else.

And that's really how our attitude should be towards airline travel. I'm not saying the government should do nothing, but sometimes the reaction is overreaction, meant not to prevent acts from occurring, but to give people who have no idea how unlikely these events are from getting worried. And still, they get worried.

In the DC area, there was a sniper attack. The two guys killed perhaps 7 people or so. But they were out in suburban areas, attacking people at Home Depots, and the like, not isolated to inner city neighborhoods that some people feel are where violence is mostly contained. Still, the odds went from very small to a little bit more than very small. This drove people nuts. They would try to avoid going to gas stations.

Admittedly, I wasn't immune to it either. All of a sudden, I thought people were hiding in shadows. I was nervous getting gas. I even knew that this reaction was irrational. The odds were simply in my favor, at least, with respect to this. I really had more to worry about with a car accident (as do you) because we drive every day.

This overreaction also makes the government look good. They are looking for our best interest. But this reaction means lots of money spent to avoid problems that are unforseen, and therefore leads to paranoia. And the problem with paranoia is that you want to find something, otherwise people wonder what you're spending all that money on.

I believe we should be prudent about this, but we probably won't be. Rather than the government looking to help improve our lives by doing positive things, we have one that promises to protect us from evils. Frankly, I'd prefer the first kind of government.