We Have More to Fear than Fear Itself,
But Try Not to Let that Ruin Your Day
February 14, 2003
By Henry J. Stern

    Last night and this morning, television and news reports extensively described the possibility of terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. DC.  They have featured duct tape, survival gear, escape routes, antidotes to poisons, and other means to attempt to escape the wrath of Osama bin Laden and his cohorts.

    I don't share that high degree of anxiety.  I do worry a lot, about getting cancer, my wife and children's well being, avoiding airplane, automobile and skiing accidents, and unexpected twists and turns in mental and physical health.  I believe that "every day we live is a gift of God", and I am thankful for the absence of misfortune.

    There are some things I don't worry about: poverty (because I have been fortunate, my father worried about supporting his wife and four children for twenty years); starvation (although that troubled my mother when I was very small); imprisonment (I believe that if you can't do the time, don't do the crime); Alzheimer's (solving crossword puzzles will put it off); subways (I stand back on the platform); fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes (they happen in the movies); and animals (they have always been friendly, but avoid pit bulls).  I realize a lot of this is highly unscientific, but I am talking about fear, not reality.

    Which brings us to terrorism, suicide bombers, dirty bombs and poisons.  I am probably spoiled by the tranquility we have enjoyed in America, but my psyche has not been captured by that particular fear.  I would take all reasonable precautions, if I knew what they were.  I support our efforts at homeland security, but I don't know how effective they will be.  I think most New Yorkers feel that way, concerned but not unduly alarmed at recent events and non-events.

    Public officials and the media have stirred a great deal of anxiety and fear.  Caught unaware by the events of September 11, government appears to issue frequent unspecific warnings so that if anything does happen, no one can allege that it was not anticipated.  The media reflect this anxiety, as well as report useful preparations for defense of our city and the national capital.  But sometimes we recall the boy who cried 'wolf' so often that he was ignored when the wolf did arrive to eat him and his sheep.  There are surely wolves out there, but when will they visit our homes.

    The color-coded danger chart now exhibited reminds me of the system long used to describe the risk of forest fires, depending on how dry the woods and how high the winds.  It also suggests the atomic clock, printed in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to describe the risk of nuclear war.  On this clock, it is now seven minutes to twelve, just what it was when they began in 1947, but the minute-hand has been turned forward and backward in the intervening 56 years.  The fact that atomic weapons have not been used by any country since World War II is a hopeful sign, it means the Bulletin is still being published.

    My generation was really frightened of war just once in our lives, during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.  I remember crowds gathering outside Grand Central Terminal, watching television in a nearby bar, trying to keep up with the standoff between President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev.  There was tangible fear at that time that the Russians would try to break our naval blockade to deliver missiles to Fidel Castro in Cuba, where launching sites, pointed at us, had been prepared for their arrival.

    Our navy had been ordered to stop the missile-bearing ships, and violence and casualties were a likely result. In the post-Stalinist climate of that time, mutually assured destruction was a real possibility.  Since North Vietnam never threatened American cities, we have not had that level of anxiety in the United States for the last forty years.

    My intuitive feeling, definitely not based on inside information, is that people should go about and continue their lives as normally as possible and be careful not to frighten their children.  I assume there will be attacks of some kind on us, and that our country will resist and retaliate.  The great majority of us are likely to survive these attacks.  But if we wait until the enemy develops nuclear weapons, that majority may become a minority.

    So let's take it easy.  Whatever happens will happen.  Meet the challenges as they arise, day by day.  England endured the German blitz for years, when London was bombed nightly by planes and later by V-1 and V-2 rockets, built by the architects of our space program.  Israeli civilians have been subjected to deadly terror attacks for years.  Israel retaliates selectively, and these attacks have diminished, despite a ready supply of deluded martyrs. 

    As Americans and New Yorkers, we are now required by history to exhibit courage and endurance, as well as patience and fortitude.  The United States will do whatever is necessary to protect us—and to terminate our enemies with extreme prejudice.

    God bless America, and keep an eye on New York.

Henry J. Stern is the director of NYCivic.