Terrorism is designed to do what its name implies: terrorize people. The horrible events of 9/11, and the subsequent anthrax attack, did exactly what the planners of these attacks intended. As a result, we've changed our entire way of life. The radicals of al Qaeda — or, in the case of the anthrax, a right-wing militia, perhaps — need not engage in another such attack. They've already achieved their goal. It now seems as if we, as a nation, can't help but jump out of our collective shoes when someone says "boo."

We've seen incidents over the last several years in which first-responders — who are simply doing their jobs and are trained for such — have reacted swiftly and decisively to a potential terrorist attack, only to find out later it was nothing. A good example of this occurred in Boston on New Year's Day, 2007. A "guerrilla" advertising agency placed electronic devices in a number of different places around the City of Boston, which were advertising a cartoon show, entitled "The Aqua Teen Hunger Force." They were battery-powered placards, made up of LEDs, which depicted a little cartoon character known as a "mooninite." Anyone 18 years old or younger could have taken one look at the signs and known that they weren't a threat. But city officials had never watched The Cartoon Network, apparently; thus the incident made national headlines as well as creating a lot of breathless coverage on the 24-hour news networks.

Ellenville, like Boston, recently had just such an event. An envelope was sent to the Town of Wawarsing government building, which may or may not have contained a substance which caused the person who opened it to have an adverse reaction. At the time, the recipient had no way of knowing what had caused the reaction, only that there may have been a toxic substance. And so, a coworker in the office did the logical thing: she picked up the phone to call the police. What would you have done? If you honestly thought your life was in danger, wouldn't you call the cops first? How could you be sure that it was all an innocent mistake? And it turned out it was innocent. Authorities have said that they found trace amounts of cake mix and baby formula, and have offered quotes ranging from there being "nothing" in the envelope to "nothing harmful" — and no matter what was or was not there, the fact that everyone is safe is a great relief to those involved in the incident.

The point here is that the Town of Wawarsing is not alone. We have all felt that sinking feeling, as if the world is suddenly a less stable place and that our foothold upon it is less sure than it used to be. Terrorism is a tactic, not unlike carpet-bombing, or dropping troops from airplanes behind enemy lines. It is designed to make its victims feel like their world is coming to an end — and, perhaps most importantly, that the state cannot protect them.

We are now conditioned to react to anything unusual as if it were the worst-case scenario — when, in our rational minds, we know that it's probably more likely that we'll get struck by lightning. Osama bin Laden, Timothy McVeigh, and their ilk have achieved what they set out to do: make us afraid.

Welcome to the brave new world.

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