You’d think we would be terrified. Yet, some of us are immune to it. Some of us are running to create bomb shelters while others read the papers figuring it’s all a hoax. It doesn’t matter where we are, east or west coast. The United States or England. We’re more annoyed than anxious. But we’re all wondering what’s next. North Korea has nuclear weapons. There is a looming, unavoidable war in Iraq. Al Qaeda’s main man is still on the loose and is calling all Muslims to fight the “enemy” United States (a message that was in one ear and out the other for this Muslim). It’s no wonder some of us are nervous. “It’s not easy living in World War Three,” as musician Pink eloquently puts it. We’ve gone from “duck and cover” to “duct tape and cover.” How are we to prepare in the event of terrorist attack? What could we do to remain safe?
Intelligence the FBI and CIA received led to the decision on Feb. 7 to raise the terrorism alert level to orange because it had suggested that attacks might be timed to the end of the Hajj, which was Thursday. The Hajj, an Islamic pilgrimage performed by millions of Muslims each year, is a sacred, spiritual and peaceful ritual that was wrongly connected to pending terrorist attacks. That’s a whole other subject. Nevertheless, last Monday Secretary Tom Ridge and government officials began advising citizens to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal their doors and windows in case of a chemical attack. Thus, many Americans ran to the nearest Home Depot and stocked up. After widespread panic erupted, officials began downplaying the threat of attacks at the end of the week calling for calamity. Ridge changed his mind and began advising that citizens do not seal their doors or windows and that those materials were only a few recommendations on their list of supplies on the department’s Web site. So then what should we do? Stock up, or sit idly by and wait? Essentially we’re not creating a safe-room, we’re creating our own personal panic room. And I refuse to live like that.
It has even affected us locally. On Friday, a postal worker at Faneuil Hall called the authorities when he discovered a package addressed to President Bush that may have contained anthrax.
It turned out to be rice.
Yet, federal officials from the police department to the fire department armed in what looked like a scene from “Outbreak” came in to dispose of the material. The incident caused panic and anxiety, rekindling the anthrax anxiety in 2001 shortly after the terrorist attacks. Then, I couldn’t bear to watch the news, my subject of study, because I was afraid of what I would hear next. Now, I watch intently and somehow it seems second nature.
It’s like a never-ending movie that is on every channel, starring none of my favorite actors. Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, John Ashcroft and the main character President Bush regurgitate the same information over and over: Iraq, United Nations, economy, war…war…war. Perhaps the threat of war is increasing our level of terrorist attacks. Of course, Press Secretary Fleischer dismissed that connection.
“Enough already” say the Americans, English and a host of other countries. Across the ocean, the English are going through their own state of peril. As my cousin Farah, who attends the University of Greenwich in London explained, people are very cynical about the real reason for war and more are annoyed that living in a democracy doesn’t matter anymore. The people’s opinion is basically swept under the rug. As for the threat of terrorist attacks and war, Farah said, “It doesn’t effect everyday life at all. The tubes [subways] are delayed due to a bag being left here or there.” London is on high alert and it’s been that way for a while. There are constant reports that there has been evidence of possible terrorist attacks on London, but no one is paranoid and people are quite skeptical about the whole thing.
So should we take cues from our British friends? Remain skeptical? What should we be feeling and how should we react? We should be more alert, Bush says. OK, we’ll be more alert, then what? Assemble an emergency kit, Ridge says. It should have a change of clothes, a sleeping bag, food and water, at least a gallon of water, as well as canned and dried foods. In addition, we should gather batteries, a radio and a flashlight. The plastic garbage bags and duct tape should be used in certain kinds of attack. The government has a plan for us in case of chemical or biological attacks yet less is being said when it comes to an atomic explosion or a “dirty” bomb. Essentially, the administration is struggling with staying in command while advising citizens of what to do in a state of emergency. So, we have no real idea what to do.
But I do admire the many law enforcement officials who are protecting our waters, our borders and us. We depend on them but now we must also depend on ourselves. Don’t panic but be aware.
I don’t have an emergency kit ready, but I am going to write all my friends and families numbers on paper instead of relying on my cell phone. I am going to save change in case the age-old method of calling on the pay phone comes back. And I’ll pray, that maybe, just maybe it’s all a dream, a bad joke and that the cries of the anti-war protesters will be heard, and my fellow Muslims will not listen to the “calling of Osama Bin Laden,” and one day the color orange won’t be the sign of terror, instead the sign that we are not afraid.
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