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Poll
Paranoid?
yes 60%
no 40%

Votes: 5

 Are we safe?

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Oct 26, 2001
 Comments:
In the past few weeks, since the destruction of the wtc and the pentagon, I have been quite concerned as to whether or not we will ever be safe from future biological, chemical, or terrorist attacks...
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For the entire span of my childhood, I never once seriously contemplated the possibility that someone from another country would ever come here with the intent to destroy the very things we hold dear. I simply could not concieve of the idea.

And apparently, I'm not alone, since this has been quite a shock to just about everyone in the USA (and some other, lesser countries). Although terrorist bombings and attacks have been and are quite common in Europe, for the most part, it seems as though we have been blissfully unaffected by this vicious scourge. Until now. And what can we really do to prevent future attacks? Our basic public institutions are so ridiculously insecure that just about anyone can destroy them.

For example, if someone wanted, they could go into our libraries and rub a viral agent on the spines of our books. If they are using a virus that's highly contagious, airborne and has an incubation period of over a week, who knows how many people could be infected! And what do we have to protect against this?

And suppose some Muslims decide to strap explosives to their kid and send him off to elementary school? What do we do in that situation?

I think that there are too many potential weak spots with which the Muslims can attack us and, well, I think that if they really wanted to, they could make a real mess of things over here. And the worst part about it is that there's nothing at all that I can do. I have to rely on the US government to protect me...and I have no idea as to whether they are prepared to defend us from these sorts of unorthodox attacks.

I don't like this at all.


I fear the government more than I fear terrorists (none / 0) (#1)
by alprazolam on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 02:12:17 PM PST



Well then... (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by manifold on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 03:18:43 PM PST
... shouldn't you be on /. instead?




 
In a way, I can sympathize (none / 0) (#5)
by Adam Rightmann on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 06:04:00 PM PST
For most of my ancestors are of German descent, and have been in the US since before the 20th century (some were here 10,000 years ago) and some even fought at Gettyburg. Yet, there was alot of anti-German feeling during WWI, and had they left the small factory town in northwest Pennsylvania that was 80% German, where the finest restaurant is called the Bavarian, the school sports teams are called the Flying Dutchman (Deutsch) and the most common second language is German, they might have felt some discrimination, too.

But, luckily you are among friends here. If you wanted to submit an article detailing your trials as an Arab-American, the death threats, the co-worker's snide remarks, the police harassment, the ignorant fraternity boys pelting you with porkchops, the Texas rednecks beating you, the red headed reliability engineers and former interns refusing to date you, I could help it get to the front page, an offer you won't get at liberal-bonobos.org.


A. Rightmann

 
Unreasonable fear (none / 0) (#2)
by zikzak on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 02:21:31 PM PST
The only people who go to libraries are homeless people. Do we really care if a bunch of wino bums get sick and die a few months earlier than they would have anyway? I don't think so.


Darn (none / 0) (#4)
by SpaceGhoti on Fri Oct 26th, 2001 at 04:37:43 PM PST
I guess this means I'll have to turn in my library card. And I was still working through Silverberg's Majipoor series.



A troll's true colors.

 
Car wrecks and earthquakes and asteroids -- oh my! (none / 0) (#6)
by chloedancer on Sat Oct 27th, 2001 at 09:30:55 AM PST
Relax. You're far more likely to die from a slip-and-fall accident in your bathroom, in a convenience store robbery or as a result of a tragic amusement park accident than you are from an act of terrorism.

The point is to live in spite of it all. Time spent fearing the unknown is time lost, hours of your life that you don't ever get back.

Quote du jour: "Forging a hole through the air, she screamed past her limitations."


 

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