EDITORIAL FEAR THERAPY STAYING STRONG AMID THE THREATS.THOUSANDS of people were placed in peril Tuesday by a breakdown in the air traffic control system in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, . For a few short hours, air traffic communications were disrupted and a handful of the many jets flying in and out of the region came treacherously close to collision. Terrorists had nothing to do with it. Billions of dollars in homeland security Noun 1. Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Department of Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States funds couldn't have prevented it. It was human error, the failure to perform a routine maintenance checkup check·up n. 1. An examination or inspection. 2. A general physical examination. checkup See Yearly checkup. in Palmdale, that caused the problem. Oops. Similarly, the latest in a series of devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. hurricanes is now assaulting the Gulf Coast, causing more destruction than almost any human hand could muster. And then there's the West Nile virus West Nile virus, microorganism and the infection resulting from it, which typically produces no symptoms or a flulike condition. The virus is a flavivirus and is related to a number of viruses that cause encephalitis. , obesity and smog endangering our health. These real and everyday occurrences should help us put the fear of terrorism into perspective. We know from what happened on 9-11 that terrorists can strike our homeland with catastrophic consequences. But we also know that it's only one of the many imminent dangers we face every day from car crashes, gang violence, cancer, natural disasters and freak events. We must take reasonable precautions, as we do every time we get in a car, then move ahead. In his first inaugural speech in 1933 during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallied the country with these words: ``There is nothing to fear but fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.'' Instead of playing into the fear and despair that had gripped Americans in the dark years In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Dark Years is a term used in The Lord of the Rings for the time of Sauron's great and almost undisputed domination of Middle-earth, during which many peoples were enslaved or corrupted. after the 1929 stock market crash, Roosevelt suggested therapy through action. In this case, it was by putting Americans to work and rebuilding the nation. In important ways, the country is in a similar place to the one in 1933. We are reeling reel·ing n. Maine Sustained noise, as from hammering: "Hark that reeling, now, you'll wake the baby!" Anonymous. from a grave hurt to the national psyche, our economy is a cause for concern, our place in the world is in question, and we see danger around every corner. And, just like in 1933, the country needs to deal with the real threats, then move on. The greatest of all the dangers is succumbing to our fears at a time when we need to reach inside for greater strength. |
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