It is hard for us to imagine how so many vicious, irrational and fanatic people in Afghanistan, Iraq and other distant places in our world engage in almost daily mass murders of innocent people whom they do not even know and for causes that their evil does not advance. But we have some terrorists close to home, too.
We have just escaped the potential mass murder of about 300 people in a domestic airline bomb threat that fizzled only because the intended suicide bomber’s explosive “didn’t work.”
And in nearby Dayton, Tenn., hundreds of schoolchildren had to be evacuated from their classes after a criminal posted a bomb threat at a bank, saying there would be school bombings unless a large sum of money were handed over.
That such foreign and domestic threats are irrational does not make them less dangerous, and in fact may make them more dangerous. Just a threat causes anxiety, disruption and substantial costs, simply because our desire for safety requires us not to ignore even remote dangers.
We engage in multibillion-dollar defensive measures and huge inconveniences to protect our airlines. Armies, police and other defenses are necessary in many situations because of countless evils and threats, many that may be false but too many that are real. And even a local threatening note can be seriously disruptive.
We live in a dangerous world and must not surrender or be cowed by evil people who commit aggression in varied forms against us all.