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We Americans have had half a century of dread fear of radioactivity pounded into our skulls. Of course radioactive material is potentially dangerous, but we have "hipped" ourselves into thinking it's the modern version of evil spirits.
Anthrax was similar, but since we're used to it, we're not quite as scared of it anymore. We know it can be treated and cured without much fuss. In 2000, it was a badass-sounding disease and a worse metal band; today, it's adult diaper rash on steroids. You can't and shouldn't dismiss it, but panic is not necessary. Ditto radionuclides. In fact, panic will hasten your demise -- infected, irradiated, or not.
Radioactive materials are well studied. Their risks have been qualified, quantified, catalogued, and coded. Anyone can read up about them on Wikipedia, any of the National Laboratories (Sandia, Argonne, Oak Ridge, and so on) websites, or a hundred-plus university physics sites.
But we are in a position where all anyone has to do is say "radiation!" and people freak out. If a janitor at a nuke plant so much as breaks wind without filling out the required paperwork, hundreds of people from the Pentagon to the organic food shop in town issue a red alert and start passing out the containment suits and potassium pills.
Sure, we ought to be strict when it comes to all things radioactive, and poisonous, and polluting. But our irrational fears of radioactivity can be exploited. One of these days, someone WILL try to exploit them brut, and people will suffer, bad.
All it will take is a dollop of Americium collected from a bunch of smoke detectors, or a speck of medical radiocesium copped during biohazard disposal transport. Grind it up, mix it in a brick of plastique, and set it off in a city -- then tell the press. As long as there is a single Becquerel of detectable radioactivity, the public will shit its collective pants.
Not only is it useful to terrorists (there are a few out there), but also to our wise and caring government, and, sadly, about half of our fellow lefties.
This is a tragic, but remediable, weakness. As I wrote, there is no lack of accurate, educational material on the effects of radioactivity. You can even learn to calculate dosages with the information the Department of Homeland Anxiety doles out to us. You can figure out early if you need to haul ass and evacuate -- or if it's okay to just keep the kids and the dog in the house for the day.
As FDR said, "we have nothing to fear but Fear itself." Never has that wisdom been needed as much as today. The manipulation and jerking of our fears, obsessions, hang-ups, and fears (I know I wrote it twice) has done more damage to us than nuclear material, 9-11, Katrina, Iraq, Avian Flu, Anthrax, Mad Cow, and Thimerosal Fluoride Chemtrails put together. Anthrax, Britney, Pedophiles, Lindsay, al-Qaeda, Mary-Kate, Internet viruses, Paris, E. coli, Tubgirl, Tom Cruise, Goatse.cx, Swift Boaters, Hillary, Ashlee, Steroids, and our aching infrastructure ... they have all been used to render us punch-drunk, whiplashed and whipsawed into a state of chronic cock-eyed hypervigilance, stress, and conditioned stupidity.
ALL of us. Even you. Even ME. (Especially me.)
But there is a cure -- awareness. Nobody has to remain a victim of fear. Education is easy to find and can turn irrational fears into a mix of positive challenges and bad one-liners.
We should certainly be on the look-out for trouble, but walking around blindfolded and frightened is no way to reduce risk. It is time to take the blindfolds off, bust the ghosts, and put the fear jockeys out of business.
--p!
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