Choosing to see "terrorism" as a nuisance

It makes perfect sense to me that Americans should consider "terrorism" a nuisance. I was in elementary school in Austin in the 1950s, and we managed bomb drills, ads for bomb shelters, Conelrad alerts ("This is a test of the Emergency Alert System") on radio and television, and open-air siren tests. Our choice during the Cold War was the same as it is now: to be always frightened by--in terror of--a constant threat or to regard it as a nuisance.

It is a mark of strength and faith to choose to see a long-term threat and fight as a nuisance. When my husband was diagnosed with recurrence of cancer, of course we were initially terrified. But we soon accepted our "new normal" because we understood that it was our choice to see cancer as a horror or a nuisance. We chose the attitude that living with cancer is a nuisance--and we concentrate on living.

Likewise, Americans can choose to focus on how "9/11 changed the world" or we can accept that our "new normal" involves nuisances like long lines at the airport. When I look around me, it looks like life is mostly the same as it was before 9/11. After the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, we always knew we could be attacked again--and we were--and we can be again. Each of us has to choose whether to be cowering tools of terrorists or to disdain terror--and get on with living.

The Cold War lasted about 45 years. The "War on Terror" is likely to be just a long a battle. It is a mark of strength and faith to choose to see this long-term threat and fight as a nuisance.