Monday, October 22, 2007

Terrorism and me (and maybe you)

Okay, so I have been trying to work out this analogy in my head. Just in the past week we have heard of the study that 19,000 people died in 2005 from an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. Now of course this is partly the fault of all of us, because so many people run to the doctor every time they sneeze and demand an antibiotic. This, I hope, has changed in the last few years. But maybe not in time.
So 19,000 dead in 2005 from this bug. I don't know how many died from other causes that year. But I bet no one died on US soil from a terrorist attack in 2005. And to be honest, I don't believe that has anything to do with Bush and Cheney and the then-Republican Congress protecting us. I think it has to do with the fact that it takes time to plan a coordinated attack, and maybe some good law enforcement work. And the last attack, the 9/11 attack, killed about 3000 people. I am not saying it wasn't awful, because of course it was. I am saying that I am more likely to encounter this horrible staph infection (and in fact, I already know people who have had it) than I am a terrorist.
So to the analogy--if there is a guy at my door with a gun, and he has already killed some of my neighbors, and the police tell me they can't deal with that guy because they have to prepare for the guy from Maine (I live in the south) who is coming next month, that is just stupid. And that is what we have going on with Bush--they didn't want to deal with Katrina, or the housing bust, or the sub prime mortgage debacle, or the pending water crisis in Atlanta, because they are too busy convincing us to be afraid of the guy who is coming next month.

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