Safety in the Age of Terror

Terrorism is a word that carries a lot of emotional baggage with it. What comes to mind when someone is talking about the topic of terrorism is probably something along the lines of the 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing, or maybe even the San Bernardino attack. Without a doubt, there seems to be a new terror incident every few months. When one occurs, it gets wall to wall coverage for days on end, talking about every gruesome detail that happened. It is pretty easy to feel scared, as if you might be the victim of terrorism in the future. Terrorism is everywhere, right?

Believe it or not, that is highly unlikely.

Andrew Shaver of the Washington Post goes into great detail talking about things that are more likely to kill American citizens that ISIS or any other terrorist organization will. Heart disease, cancer, and vehicular accidents take the cake as some of the most likely killers of Americans. Say, two or three people were killed in a vehicular accident. It might make the news for a brief second, but will never be covered for days on end. Why? It doesn’t catch peoples’ attention.

By taking a brief second to think of who we know that has been the victim of vehicular accident, most people can think of at least one person they know who has been killed. Some people, like myself, have been very close to being victims

How many people know someone who was killed in a terrorist attack after 9/11? Very few.

Why does it get plastered all over the place? It’s simple. It sells. It is very interesting to the listener. They pundits have a wide variety of topics to focus on. Anything from weapons and tactics to minute details about the terrorist is fair game, even their wrestling career like the Boston Bomber. This type of reporting can further add to the anxiety that citizens are feeling because it never truly lets the topic of terrorism leave their minds. There is always another insignificant detail of the terrorist’s life that could be reported on.

Franklin Roosevelt once said that the only thing to fear is fear itself. This statement not only applies to the Great Depression, but can also be applied to the topic of domestic terrorism. Yes, if terrorists were unrestrained, they could easily do significant damage to the United States; damage that would make 9/11 look like a walk in the park. Fortunately, that is not the case. There are countless agencies and programs that are tasked with finding and stopping acts of terror before they ever happen. There is also an ungodly amount of money spent fighting terrorism as well. According to the Pew Research Center, intelligence agencies spent $17.25 billion on counter-terrorism efforts in 2012.

Not realizing that we are so highly protected can have some pretty serious consequences, usually resulting in citizens unknowingly giving up their rights in the pursuit of safety. Whenever a terrorist attack is successful and uses a rifle, many people want to limit the second amendment and radicals may even want to do away with it all together. We also have begun to forfeit our right to privacy in an attempt to stay safe. Edward Snowden leaked a large quantity of information regarding to a secret NSA spying program that collects the data of almost every single American citizen. There are possibly countless other minor infringements, many us private citizens probably don’t even know about.

Again, many people are okay with this because it could possibly make us safer against terrorists.

Is it worth it? I would argue that it is not. The goal of many terrorist organizations, especially ISIS, is to make the United States abandon its ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. By attempting to crack down on terrorism and infringing on the rights of people, Muslim Americans will eventually take the brunt of this because of radical Islamic terrorism. ISIS believes that if we alienate the majority of Muslim Americans, many will defect to the terrorist organization.

In an attempt to make ourselves safer, we are actually making ourselves weaker as a nation by abandoning what made us the shining city on a hill: liberty. Benjamin Franklin once said “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”