Of Hurricanes and Terrorism

Tom Tomorrow has an interesting take on our fear of terrorism in light of the tragedy unflolding in New Orleans and points east.

We've been told for four years that we're at war to preserve our freedom, our way of life, our very civilization.

Well, this is in no way meant to downplay the suffering along the Gulf Coast tonight, or the immensity of this tragedy--but this is what we've been afraid of for the past four years, this level of destruction.

This is bad, really bad, probably much worse than we know--but civilization itself is not at risk.

I'm not saying we should just roll over and let The Terrorists run willy nilly through the streets tossing dirty bombs every which way with gleeful abandon. I'm saying that even in a fairly worst-case scenario, another major terrorist attack which manages to inflict anything close to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina--even then, the the only real danger to our way of life, to democracy itself, comes from our own leaders deciding that a free society is just way too much damn trouble.

It's not the damage done to us, by whatever means--we can pick ourselves up and mourn our dead and rebuild. It's the damage we do to ourselves that may be irreparable.

I think that's right; civilization, as a whole, is not at risk from terrorism and we should not be acting like it is. To emphasize what Tom says, we need to be vigilant but not to the extreme. Turning fear into counter-productive aggression (Iraq) is not the right course and in itself degrades civilization. Terrorism is, at worst, spotty in reach. The United States, much less the free world, was not in any danger of collapsing on 9/11. Nor is it going to in the aftermath of Katrina. As a society we can get through these things without total capitulation to our most regressive primal states. Let's use our heads to work and live together.