If another terror attack happens here will you change how you think about

[glasshouses]

your daily lives?


Will you avoid sporting events , shopping malls , concerts etc...

Attacks like the Kenya Mall terror shooting..

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Live free or die.

Nope. I could walk outside and get hit by a bus. There are no guarantees.

[pnwmom]

7. Do you feel that way about your children, too?

That's when everything changed for me.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. I do. While I will do my best to protect them, I realize

I can't wrap them in bubble wrap. Losing my husband made me realize how very short life is. There is only so much we can do, and I'm not willing to give up my rights out of fear.

While it is often difficult to think of my daughter living 4 states away, that's the way life is.

[pnwmom]

17. But I bet you wouldn't if they were young children still living at home. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. Look at the bigger picture. And, yes I would. 9/11 did not change my world view n/t

[pnwmom]

35. I had a daughter in Boston I couldn't reach by phone (or any other way) for three days after 9/11

and a young son who had woken up to see the images on TV -- before I did.

It had an impact on all of us.

[ScreamingMeemie]

39. It did not keep me from visiting the top of the JP Morgan Chase building...

It did not alter my day. Was it sad? Yes. Horrific to think about? Sure. Then we move on. And we prove that we can't let that affect or change the way in which we live. Live free or die.

When my son was a toddler, there was a news broadcast about a child of the same age who pulled a bookcase down on top of himself. It killed him. I did not remove the bookcases from my house.

No, my views have not/will not change... unless terror attacks happen every hour, every minute—until armed "boogeymen" are walking down the street daily, within easy view. What a horrible way to live: In fear of things that have slim to no chance of happening to me.

[pnwmom]

40. Live free or die. I always thought that was a dumb license plate.

But a lot of people must like it.

People are all interconnected. No one is ever really free.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. I seem to have upset you because I like and appreciate being able to go the mall.

I don't see it as a "dumb license plate."

As I said, I think losing my husband at the age of 37 gave me a perspective that I can't really "fix" or "stop" anything.

Did you have bookcases in your house when your kids were small? Do you drive a car even though you can't control the actions of other drivers?

[pnwmom]

65. I'm not upset. I was always glad I didn't live in a state

that made me drive around with a war slogan on my license plate.

I'm sure the Libertarians and tea party people in NH love the slogan, but I agreed with the 1977 Supreme Court decision that decided New Hampshire couldn't require people to turn their cars into "mobile billboards."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooley_v._Maynard

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court held that New Hampshire could not constitutionally require citizens to display the state motto upon their vehicle license plates. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, found that the statute in question effectively required individuals to "use their private property as a 'mobile billboard' for the State's ideological message." The Court held that the State's interests in requiring the motto did not outweigh free speech principles under the First Amendment, including "the right of individuals to hold a point of view different from the majority and to refuse to foster ... an idea they find morally objectionable." The state's interest in motor vehicle identification could be achieved by "less drastic means," and its interest in fostering state pride was not viewpoint-neutral.

[neverforget]

46. The Clackamas Town Center shooting happened a few years ago. I live less than a mile

from there and the news helicopters were flying over our house for hours that night. I had to explain to my daughter who was 8 at the time what had happened. We went to Clackamas Town Center a week or 2 after the shooting. She said she was scared and that was okay. We then had to explain to her how the chances of that happening while we were there were very small just like any terror attack. I'm not going to live in fear of some asshole who is out kill. It's not worth it and I refuse to live in fear of events that I can't control.

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2012/12/clackamas_town_center_shooting.html

[Aerows]

60. And if we don't fight them over there

we'll have to fight them over here! /s

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. We've had fairly frequent anonymous mass gun homicides for at least 20 years

And probably longer. Few people have adjusted their behavior to it.

Perhaps some mildly increased "security" in some quarters, but little else in the way of changing daily lives.

That's included a number of mall/shopping center shootings.

[Electric Monk]

10. Statistically speaking, that's much more likely than being victim to a "terrorist attack"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1262&pid=428

[LuvNewcastle]

77. That's how I see it.

There isn't much difference between a terrorist attack and a mass shooting. We've had more home-grown terrorist attacks than foreign(Muslim) terrorist attacks.

The psychological blow of seeing those enormous buildings fall and all those people die in one fell swoop warped the perceptions of a lot of Americans.

An attack that large is a very rare thing, though. Your chances of dying in a 9/11-style event are pitifully small. About the only kind of attack that would have a great effect on my daily life would be a biological attack. If something like that happened, it would all be up in the air.

[blm]

3. LOL - Exactly the type of post I've expected from you.

9-11 swayed you, eh?

Not me - I would STILL never buy the horsesh!t being sold by GOP and its operatives. No matter how benign it may be presented here.

[salin]

21. That was my thought. We have already lived through this.

I will admit driving into a city with an extra effluent smokestack made me alert /wary a day or two after 9-11. I was more bothered a week later, when I was buying a bottle of wine - and there were a bunch of bottles with eagles and flags on them. I asked the person at the counter if part of the proceeds were going to a victim's fund (because that I could understand - but the sheer commercialism of peddling wine by patriotism ... on the backs of all of those deaths), he said no. And looked at me as if it was such a strange thing to ask.

I remember being a little jumpy for a short period of time. Being horrified at the visuals, and later the stories of some of the lost lives.

But it didn't reshape the way I view the world. Except with more cynicism towards rampant commercialization of a horrific event - and then towards political manipulation/propoganda of the same horrific event.

[HereSince1628]

4. Without any terror attacks I am mostly avoiding cities, minimizing contact with suburbs

Another terror attack would be very unlikely to change my thinking on where I am in my daily life.

[Newest Reality]

5. Nope.

Living in fear of a future that may never come seem like no way to live at all, especially when one has relative safety in the present.

One finds more comfort and joy in living by being with what is going on now rather than dwelling on the past, (be it nostalgia or trauma) or projecting into the future that never actually arrives.

Making a commitment to no longer be manipulated at the basest, survival level of existence when it becomes obvious that such a method is, (and has been) a means to manipulate and control behavior, seems to be a more realistic and satisfying view.

Anything can and will happen. One plans better for the "future" when coming from a solid and direct experience of what is right here and now. Being in a haze of what might be, with all the hopes and fears, is rather nebulous and harsh on the nervous system and serves to be rather impractical unless you can actually do something to avert or change what you believe "might" happen.

That's just a view.

[tularetom]

6. At my age there aren't a lot of guarantees

Every day is pretty much a bonus, so no, I have no intention of altering my daily routine because of a "terror" episode. Particularly if our government attempts to use it to scare the shit out of us.

[dissentient]

8. Nope, I avoid crowds already

Not really a mall person either.

[JoePhilly]

9. More likely to be killed by a fool who misfires their gun.

Or let's their kid get it.

[dissentient]

13. Exactly, we have plenty of nuts already in this country who go on killing sprees from time to time

We don't need foreign terrorism to remind us that these things happen, we just have to turn on the tv news.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

12. Not unless they become common.

And I mean like once a week or more common, with massive damage. After all, we shrug off 30k a year in domestic gun deaths. We'd need to rack up something on the same order of magnitude of terrorist deaths for it to be significant.

[FLPanhandle]

14. Humans are incredibly adaptive creatures.

It would not change behaviors, but it would get people to agree to surrendering more of their privacy.

That's scarier than any terrorist attack. I'm more disturbed by the Patriot Act than by 9/11.

[csziggy]

15. No - 9/11 didn't change my life, why should another terrorist attack?

Even the smaller terrorist attacks such as school shootings or abortion clinic bombings have not affected how I live.

I almost never am in large crowds, or at schools, or at clinics providing reproductive services to women and I visit large cities only a few times a decade. I don't travel by airplane, train or mass transit. So the chances of me being exposed to any kind of mass attack are pretty much nil.

[Autumn]

16. No. I will continue to live as I chose. n/t

[leveymg]

18. Amazon.com already killed the shopping malls around here. Who can afford concerts or pro sports?

The war on middle-class retail. Next to the destruction wrought by Jeff Bezos in America, ISIS is nothing:

[NightWatcher]

19. Will you change what you do? (assuming you are not already hiding under your bed)

If you are too scared to live life, go to your nearest hospital and donate all of your organs. There are people out there who want to live life to the fullest and would welcome the chance to do so.

[a la izquierda]

57. Exactly.

Being scared of shadows and bogeymen is no way to live.

9/11 scared me so badly I refused to fly for my grandma's funeral, two years later. I have to live with that everyday, forever. I will never be afraid like that again.

[blm]

79. Perfect.

And, yes, some ARE hiding already…but….some of us aren't easily fooled with the constant stream of concern posts.

[bigwillq]

22. No (nt)

[Augustus]

23. They happen every week or two

You just refuse to call them terror attacks.

I am speaking, of course, of the massive unreported gun violence that occurs across the nation, so routine that it has become unworthy of even making a simple headline.

[NRaleighLiberal]

24. nope.

[uppityperson]

25. I don't avoid schools because there are school shootings regularly.

It depends on what, where, whom, etc etc etc.

[Brigid]

26. I'm not going to live in fear.

After the ah . . . let's just call it "eventful" . . . year I had in 2008, I really don't know why I'm still alive anyway; so I'm not going to waste time being afraid all the time.

[bluedigger]

27. Fuck that noise.

You think I'm going to live in a bunker the rest of my days?

[MADem]

28. Yes, I will run, screaming, from the public square, to safety in the high hills where I'll lock

myself away, far from danger and strife...not.

I've lived in countries where bombs went off all the time, where martial law was normalized. Here's how you handle it--you keep your eyes peeled, you observe your surroundings, and you hope for the best.

If you're gonna go, you're gonna go.

[woo me with science]

29. No.

Hell no.

[blogslut]

30. Define "terror attack".

Because, in my memory, there's been too many to count but I know the count begins with Charles Whitman.

[ScreamingMeemie]

34. One could say it began long before that...

Long before this even:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/18/bath_school_bombing_remembering_the_deadliest_school_massacre_in_american.html

And yet, the majority of us still send our children off to Kindergarten.

[glasshouses]

44. DC sniper terror attacks for 3 weeks had many people change their routines in the area

Public reaction

During the period of the attacks in the D.C. area, the North American media devoted enormous amounts of air time and newspaper space to each new attack. By the middle of October 2002, all news television networks provided live coverage of the aftermath of each attack, with the coverage often lasting for hours at a time. The Fox show America's Most Wanted devoted an entire episode to the shooters in hopes of aiding in their capture. Much of the coverage of the case in The New York Times was written by Jayson Blair and subsequently found to be fabricated; the ensuing scandal led the newspaper's two top editors, Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd, to resign.

During the weeks that the attacks occurred, fear of the apparently random shootings generated a great deal of public apprehension, especially at service stations and the parking lots of large stores. People pumping gasoline at gas stations would walk around their cars quickly, hoping that they would be a harder target to hit. Some stations put up tarps around the awnings over the fuel pumps so people would feel safer. Also, many people would attempt to fuel their vehicles at the naval base of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, as they felt it was safer inside the guarded fence. Various government buildings such as the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Supreme Court building, and memorial tourist attractions at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. also received heightened security. For the duration of the attacks, United States Senate pages received a driven police escort to and from the United States Capitol every day and were not allowed to leave their residence hall for any reason except work. Drivers of white vans and box trucks were viewed with suspicion from other motorists as initial media reports indicated the suspect may be driving such a vehicle.

After the specific threat against children was delivered, many school groups curtailed field trips and outdoors athletic activities based upon safety concerns. At the height of the public fear, some school districts, such as Henrico County Public Schools and Hanover County Public Schools, after the Ponderosa shooting, simply closed school for the day. Other schools such as the MJBHA, cancelled all outdoor activities after the shooting at the Connecticut and Aspen Hill intersection. Others changed after-school procedures for parents to pick up their kids to minimize the amount of time children spent in the open. Extra police officers were placed in schools because of this fear. In addition to this, Joel Schumacher's film Phone Booth was deemed potentially upsetting enough that its release was delayed for months


Now imagine a attack like this in a large event or shopping mall in the U.S


On 21 September 2013, unidentified gunmen attacked the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The attack, which lasted until 24 September, resulted in at least 67 deaths, including four attackers. Over 175 people were reportedly wounded in the mass shooting, with all of the gunmen reported killed.

The Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the incident, which it characterised as retribution for the Kenyan military's deployment in Somalia. Many media outlets also suspected the insurgent group's involvement in the attack based on earlier reprisal warnings it had issued in the wake of Operation Linda Nchi from 2011 to 2012.

[blogslut]

47. Terror is terror.

Whether it comes from within the home, on the street or in the vivid imaginations of fearmongers. Somewhere, at this moment, someone is feeling terrorized. Life is scary.

Boo!

[blm]

50. Reminds me of the RW bumper sticker: Bush- Miss Me Yet?

.

[arcane1]

54. Not to mention lynchings. Now that's terrorism!

[zappaman]

31. No, I've trained with ninjas so I'm not worried.

[glasshouses]

38. ninjas!

[Iggo]

32. Nothing you say can make me afraid of terrorists.

I'm just not.

[dissentient]

36. Heh, same here. I keep on wanting to ask the fear mongers about ISIS

So how scared am I supposed to be, on a scale of 1-10?

My other question to those very worried about ISIS is:

What will happen of we don't do anything about ISIS? What specifically, will happen? What??

[Blue_In_AK]

33. No.

There are a million ways to die. toddlers with guns seem fairly deadly.

[Sherman A1]

37. I avoid most of them anyway

hate sports,

shopping malls are pretty much a thing of the past

and rarely go to concerts.

So..........life goes on..

[MineralMan]

42. I already avoid sporting events , shopping malls , concerts etc...

I'm not a fan of crowds, don't like people throwing beer at me, I shop online, and don't attend concerts. But I've been avoiding those things for a very long time. So, no, it won't change how I think about my daily life.

It certainly would change how many people think, though.

[erstickendarauf]

43. No, not at all

[larkrake]

45. no, I fear Christian terrorists far more

open carry gun nuts, police who push conflicts, employees near the edge, our congressmen and oil sociopaths.

[bananas]

48. No, and I'm not afraid of "anti-vaxxers" either. nt

Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2015, 10:58 PM - Edit history (1)

[femmocrat]

49. I don't go to any of those places now.

I am more afraid of the yahoos with guns. We live in a rural gun-nut land. We hear guns all the time here. Ka-pow, ka-boom!

[Marrah_G]

51. No

[Logical]

52. No I will not, fuck them, 9/11 already fucked up travel, I am sick of caving. nt

[doc03]

53. No, that is what they want. How many thousand malls are there? I take more of a chance

running into a lone nut with a gun with road rage.

[arcane1]

55. Hell no.

[Vincardog]

56. "IF" frogs had wings... I do not do fantasy terror.

[JonLP24]

58. I pretty much am of the mindset that another one will happen here sooner or later

Especially with the "lone wolfs" American citizens agreeing to pull one off.

Terror groups recruit many where there are daily terror attacks, Battle of Fallujah 1 & 2 set off a civil war & radicalized many in the Anbar province. I know another one, many will either join or support military action very strongly if a terror attack strikes locally or large scale with mass casualties. IIRC, 9/11 coverage depicted many people in line at recruiting offices. Same idea works with recruiting those who join terror groups.

[Jamastiene]

59. Do you not notice the VERY frequent domestic terrorist attacks?

If it is not one gunman, it is two, or a gunman and a gunwoman (spell check says there is no such thing, there is). Every time we turn around someone is spraying bullets everywhere in public places to terrorize and murder people.

I won't live on my knees for these assholes in my hometown who still, to this day, send me threats, some death threats, some worse than death, simply because I dare to be an out lesbian in this tiny Bible Belt Christian county. If I can manage that, I certainly can manage to live my life as best I can despite terrorists and their plans to take themselves and whoever else they can out. They can kiss my gay ass. I'm living until the day I die, by whatever method. We all are, actually. Might as well live free while we can.

[freshwest]

61. No, I only go out for the bare necessities. Some people don't consume much.

[LeftyMom]

62. Nope. But I'll continue to laugh at pants shitting cowards who fail at math.

You're not that important. That's why you're more likely to be killed in your SUV on your way to buy MREs and gas masks than you are by terrorism.

[hatrack]

63. No.

BTW, does "terror attack" mean Pimply White Dude With AK-47, or Purportedly More Frightening Muslim Brown Dude With AK-47?

The reason I ask is that I know which one is more likely, and which one is "scarier", but am still working on where the two intersect.

[winter is coming]

64. Nope. n/t

[ladyVet]

66. I'd say no, but really, it depends.

If it's something in my area, like the aforementioned DC sniper situation, I'll take appropriate action as I would in any case such as tornado warning for my area, or driving on icy roads. I take the normal personal safety precautions (not being out after dark, watching my surroundings, etc). That's just common sense.

But to stop going places, doing everyday things like shopping or going to school, as a general response? No. I refuse to live in fear. I'd rather die on my feet, than live on my knees, as the saying goes. Same for my children. My youngest was six when 911 happened. I was worried at first, because I'd just dropped him off at school, but I figured we were safe enough at the moment, as we lived out in the middle of nowhere and there were no reports of danger other than NYC (we didn't know about the other plane at that point).

People live everyday in far worse situations than anything that's happened in America. They manage to go on, and so can I.

[hobbit709]

67. Not particularly. My daily life doesn't include sporting events and malls.

Even the concerts I go to are fairly small events-usually under 300 people

you're more likely to be struck by lightning on a sunny day.

[avebury]

68. Nope. We already live with the possibility of some

gun nut committing a mass shooting at any time for whatever reason. We live in a militarized police society that can pretty much operate as they please with nominal to no consequence. Homeland Security as already issued warnings regarding right wing extremism. Republican and Tea Party elected officials are only interested in trying to pass bat sh** crazy legislation. I don't give one thought to the possibility of a terrorist attack initiated by outside factions.

Talk about possible terrorist attacks is nothing more then misdirection for the purpose of diverting our attention from what is taking place within our own country. One might make the case that terrorism attacks are already occurring from within, by our own people.

[LeftishBrit]

69. I'd like to say no..

I hope I would follow the old British motto 'Keep calm and carry on'. Otherwise you're giving the terrorists what they want.

E.g. I was on public transport in London the day before the 7/7 bombing, and I travelled again in London 2 weeks afterwards.

Obviously I can't in all honesty say what I would do if the threat became truly extreme, and especially if there was the risk of my endangering others in the process.

[HappyMe]

70. Hell no.

Not at all.

[brooklynite]

71. Likely not at all

I never thought twice about going to Times Sq after the attempted bombing.

[Orsino]

72. If? They are happening regularly within the US.

It may be difficult to distinguish any one attack from random violence, especially at first, but yes, I would avoid known open-carry hangouts or obvious political targets.

[Phentex]

73. No. I am more scared of Atlanta drivers...

some of whom may be terrorists.

[Fumesucker]

74. 285 is *not* the speed limit you morans..

[Phentex]

75. I don't think there is an actual speed limit on GA 400 either...

And I have seen road rage in the Costco parking lot!

ISIS should be scared to live here.

[Vietnameravet]

76. i wonder if some will change your mind about hero worshiping

those that reveal our anti terrorism secrets?

[onyourleft]

78. No. n/t

[F4lconF16]

80. No, because I have a decent grasp of statistics

and I refuse to allow them to win my fear.

[whatchamacallit]

81. Anything can happen anytime, anywhere

Last edited Mon Feb 23, 2015, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)

That Americans have chosen to wrap their lives around the fear of terror, especially when the probability is so remote, is a profound tragedy.

[olddots]

82. I fear the people who are so fearfull .

Zthere is big money in fear .

[hunter]

83. Is this like some kind of "focus group?"

I'm the guy with a beard. Or maybe a mom of the mister sort.