Remember: our rules allow pointed disagreement, but require respectful discussion.
--
I have to agree with Andy here -- we are over-reacting to the events of
Sept 11th, and falling into the trap of disrupting all our lives in the
process. We need to get back to just going on with our lives, and stop
obsessing over unlikely threats.
For example, can anyone skilled in statistics help fill in the following list:
- people killed on Sept 11th by terrorist
activities: approximately 7,000
- people killed in auto accidents on Sept 11th: ?
- people who died on Sept 11th as a result of smoking: ?
- people who died on Sept 11th as a result of AIDS: ?
- people who died on Sept 11th from old age: ?
No doubt people are worried, since "dying from terrorist activity" is a new
and different item to be added to the risks we take every day of our lives,
and new and different risks are the most upsetting. (My Grandmother used
to talk about how much safer it had been on Lake St. before they let those
automobiles drive on it!)
We need to look at these risks in perspective, and compare them to
reality. For example, how does your statistical risk of being killed by a
terrorist bomb compare to your risk of dying from health problems caused by
sitting reading these emails on your computer instead of getting out &
exercising in our city parks?
(Personally, I think I'm in more danger from the latter. And I could do
more to affect that risk than I could by worrying about terrorist attacks.)
Tim Bonham, Ward 12
>I grow increasingly concerned over Americans' willingness to subvert our
>present systems and our freedoms toward a gossamer goal, i.e., the absolute
>stifling of all threats to our well-being. We have daily threats facing us
>with which we cope and still there will be victims. It is not wise to
>knee-jerk alter the things that work for us generally while keeping an eye
>out for the unusual.
>. . .
>Andy Driscoll
>Saint Paul
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