 Reflecting on Terror |
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of TheColumnists.com
I WAS READING op-ed columnist Norah Vincent in the LA Times the other day. She warned her readers that her report would be worrisome. Talk about understatement.
She was beyond worrying about Anthrax, she said. She was beyond worrying about small pox. She was writing about that big flash in the sky that she expected soon because Osama Bin Laden might have nuclear weapons or know how to attack our nuclear plants. He was the sort of terrorist who would do something like that, she said, welcoming death and a heavenly greeting from Allah. There was an undercurrent of panic in the column: We're gonna die, we're gonna die, WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!
Admittedly, this columnist is not the only one worrying these days. But there's worry and there's the stuff you say just before you commit suicide. And this sounded like the latter.
Definitely some of us are on the road to a nervous breakdown, not at all helped by the fact that our vice president seldom comes out of hiding. When VP Cheney finally went to visit the World Trade Center disaster site, weeks after the event, there was an army of security men surrounding his car. In the next lane, an FBI car was being driven backwards with all four of its doors wide open--a clear escape path. How's that for the home of the brave?
It is indeed worrisome when our leaders seem the most frightened. Congress, after the Sept. 11 attack, never did fully re-open Washington's Reagan Airport. They said that planes taking off from there could hit the Capitol in minutes.
And when spores of Anthrax were found in the House of Representatives, the whole place was closed down, with our leaders heading for the hills. No use taking undue chances, they muttered as they left, although no foreign enemy had ever shut Congress before. As for the rest of us, they patted us on the back and said we should just go about living our lives naturally as a rebuke to the terrorists.
We have come a long way from FDR's stirring message during the Depression: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Now we fear everything.
Ms. Vincent has her points. This is definitely a time for concern. But as FDR was trying to point out, undue fear can be numbing and self-defeating. We could use a little calm perspective these days and nights.
For example, it might be worth pointing out that the only ones dropping bombs these days is us. I am not necessarily criticizing that, but we don't have to endure air raid sirens in the night. Nuclear attack? The only nation ever to have used nuclear arms in war was us, too. Indeed we were fearful in those World War II days, too, with school kids instructed in hiding under their desks. But the fear was never realized.
Americans now are stocking up on anti-anthrax antibiotics, as if the menace were wide spread. Yet, for all the fear, the casualties are few.
Whatever the realities, America appears to be a land gripped by fear. It is time to remind ourselves that 42,000 of us died last year in auto crashes and that 16,000 people died in crashes caused by drunk drivers. In other words, three times as many people died last year in drunk driving cases as died in the World Trade Center collapse.
Remember AIDS? We have suffered considerable tragedy in that front, but nothing like the people of Africa where the disease threatens to wipe out a third of the continent.
We are not Africa. We have the world's most extensive health facilities, the world's most powerful military, and an educated population of over 300 million, compared to the 20,000 or so terrorists believed to be operating around the globe.
Yes, for the first time, we face an enemy canny enough to bring death into our own neighborhoods. But little Israel has been living that way for decades and yet they maintain a surprising tone of confidence.
The Dick Cheney example is embarrassing. Would his death be as catastrophic as we fear, or he fears? This is a man with a serious heart condition. His future is at risk in the best of times.
America is not vulnerable. With greater intelligence at the CIA, the Trade Center could have been prevented, or at least diminished.
But now we assume that this Bin Laden character can take us out all by his lonesome, directing the whole scenario from a series of Afghan caves.
It is not enough for Americans to sing "America the Beautiful" in the seventh inning of every baseball game. Flag-waving is not a substitute for courage. When I was a child, this nation took on the major powers of Japan and Germany and fought a world war on two continents. We won that war. And as I recall, nobody had a gas mask in the hall closet.
Hey, all you columnists out there. FDR was right. Take heart. All we need in these worrisome days is another leader or two like him.
©
2001 by Murry Frymer. The
logo illustration is © 2001 by Jim Hummel.
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