We have nothing to fear but fear itself

It was not quite light when I stepped out the door this morning. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure dressed in black disappear around the corner. "Ahah" says I. "A terrorist at last!"
But no. To my dismay it was a pseudo terrorist, one of George Bush's terrorists, a figment of my imagination. Remembering that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself " got me to thinking about 9/11 and its implications for us as a society. We lost about 3000 souls on 9/11. We had previously lost a few hundred to a terrorist in the Oklahoma bombing. Then there was the attack on the Cole, the Marine barracks in Lebanon and several other smaller terrorist attacks. Let's say there have been 10,000 Americans killed by terrorists over the last 10 years. Or each of us has about 0.003% of being killed by a terrorist attack
Yet death by a thousand cuts threaten us every day. Many times that number are killed each year by tobacco or highway deaths or water and air pollution or..... Yet in retaliation for 10,000 American deaths we have caused 100,000 civilian Iraqi deaths. And against the wrong people!
Our total lack of priorities assures me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick