The Sum of All Fears

Back in the 70's my husband and I lived in Evanston. We lived in an apartment building and parked on the street. When it snowed, the city would sound the air raid siren to remind people to move their cars so the city could plow.

The first time we heard the siren we were shocked.

My husband joked that when the nukes came, people in Evanston would be out moving their cars.

After about 5 years, we moved to neighboring Wilmette. They sound the sirens for tornado warnings. At least if the nukes hit people will be taking shelter.

Now some people around here seem to be afraid of a lot of things: secondhand smoke (smoking ban in town), guns (handgun ban, including airsoft guns carried on the street), and that their neighbor might purposely damage their tree roots, but they don't seem to be worried about a terror attack coming to the Second City. Why not?

While it seems perfectly natural for liberals around here to think that some of their neighbors are out to get them, apparently they are perfectly OK with believing that terrorists don't pose any threat at all.

Or maybe they're not really afraid, it's just a Democrat strategy to win elections on domestic issues.

Here is Tom Bevan on Why a bit of Fear is in Order on the terror threat:

This is one of my main beefs with Democrats who continually accuse President Bush of being a “fear monger” for using the threat of terrorism to scare and “divide” people. The fact is that Americans need to be reminded from time to time about the ongoing threat of terrorism, and there is simply no way of doing that without putting people on edge. Terrorism is real, it is scary, and it is now an unfortunate fact of life. Pretending otherwise would be a dereliction of duty for this or any other administration.

The hypocrisy of Democrats on the issue is even more infuriating. They are the ones who have perfected the art of scaring the voting public over the last twenty years with apocalyptic visions that range from farfetched to non-existent. It seems like every two years we’re treated to the same refrain about Granny eating dog food because she can’t afford her pills.

The fact is that all threats are not equal and should not be equally feared. So which is more of a threat worth fearing, exactly: that al-Qaeda will try and explode a bomb in a major U.S. city or that Sam Alito is going to make black people sit at segregated lunch tables? That Bush is going to cause the end of human existence by not signing Kyoto or that terrorists get their hands on a two vials of anthrax or ten pounds of enriched uranium?

A fundamental yet consistently unappreciated fact is that the first thing President Bush does when he gets to work every day is sit down and listen to a litany of threats and plots against the American people. We probably can’t even imagine the magnitude of the hair-raising things he hears, nor can we appreciate how real those threats must appear to a Commander in Chief in charge of national security in a post-9/11 world.

So a bit of fear is in order under the circumstances. Some will suggest this means the terrorists have already won. Hardly. Vigilance driven by focused concern is not weakness, utter complacency is.