Warnings promote fear
Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, they've been coming in waves — the warnings of further terrorist attacks.
It was ironic, really. In the days following the destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attack, President Bush kept telling the nation, Don't be afraid. Go about your lives as normal. If we give in to fear, the terrorists have won.
So we went back to our normal lives, after the round-the-clock news coverage petered out and the airlines started flying again.
But then came the warnings: news that terrorists might be plotting another attack.
And we became afraid again — what else did the government expect us to do?
This week, we got another round of warnings. The al-Qaida network might be plotting something else, said Vice President Cheney.
The warnings are back — and just like last fall, they accomplish nothing.
These kinds of warnings are useless. When we turn on CNN to see a somber-faced diplomat telling us that another horrible catastrophe may or may not happen, it doesn't protect us.
It doesn't cause us to be any more alert. We're already alert. If 9/11 didn't wake us up, nothing will.
The warnings only do one thing — spread fear. They make more people afraid to leave their homes, afraid to fly, afraid to trust strangers.
Maybe if the warnings were more specific, we could actually use them. But they're always so vague that they're completely useless.
Take, for example, the scrutiny President Bush now is getting from critics who say he didn't heed pre-9/11 warnings closely enough.
Many legislators, mostly Democrats, are calling for an investigation: What did Bush know before 9/11? Could the events of that day been prevented?
Of course not. Bush got the same information that the American public has now: terrorists may or may not try to attack American citizens, and they may or may not use airplanes.
Not even the most jaded fiction writers could have come up with the evil scenario that played itself out the morning that two airliners careened into the Twin Towers.
My view is this: Stop bombarding the American public with useless warnings.
We're not asking you to keep us in the dark or treat us like idiots. We're asking you to give the warnings to people who can actually use them — the FBI, the INS, the airline security personnel.
Unless the warnings are specific — a bulletin to be on the lookout for a certain criminal, for example — they're of no use to us.
They only spread fear.
— JENNIFER WILSON
