A few months ago, I was visiting my parents. There was some discussion on the national news about a new terror alert, and one of the folks (I forget which) asked me how I felt about living in a terrorist target (the DC area) and how I responded to such alerts.

I answered the question by yelling. Not at my parents, but out of anger and frustration — I ignore the terror alerts as much as I possibly can because they never contain any useful information or suggestions for how I should change my behavior. Just “be on alert” and “report suspicious activity.” That’s not helpful! A large truck was parked in the parking lot outside my apartment this morning — is that suspicious? or is it just that one of my neighbors is moving? Who can tell? The whole thing pisses me right off.

So when I heard about the latest terror alert, I did my best to ignore it. But I was unnerved by how similar the alert sounded to the 9-11 attacks. A financial insituttion might be targeted? Gee, that sounds serious, and plausible to boot. I didn’t do anything about this alert, but I found it harder to ignore than the others.

And then I wake up this morning and learn that the information is 3-4 years old. Gee. No wonder it sounded plausible — it’s already happened.

Like Medley, I’m not foolish enough to believe that there will never be another terrorist attack. I feel pretty confident that there will be one. But I refuse to be afraid of the monster in the closet, and I refuse to let bullies scare me out of my lunch money (or my vote) with stories about the monsters.