American hoaxes make light of true danger

I love Americans. What other group of people so exemplify the saying “a few bad apples spoil the bunch” better than we do in this country?

Right now, while our country is waging war against terrorism in Afghanistan, some left-wing sociopath is filling a letter addressed to an abortion clinic in the Bible Belt with baby powder, hoping to start yet another hoax anthrax scare.

It’s bad enough right now that actual bio-terrorism is being unleashed on Americans. But we also apparently have a small segment of our population that is using this as an opportunity to spread their particular messages, or just to have some good old fashioned fun, making people think they’ve been exposed to a deadly disease.

The fear of anthrax is so widespread in this country right now, in part due to these terrorist wannabes, that it’s become virtually impossible to go to a grocery store without bumping into a hazmat team investigating a box of spilled Sweet and Low.

All the places that have actually been confirmed to have had exposure to anthrax have been major (or at least perceived as major) organizations in this country. Microsoft, ABC and NBC News, various government offices, and the official-sounding American Media have become targets of bio-terrorism.

The chance that John Q. Public, living at 123 Main Street in Anytown, USA, will open a letter tomorrow thinking he’s won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, but actually exposes himself to anthrax, is virtually zero.

The source of this bio-terrorism is still up in the air, and people sending out hoax letters surely does not help anyone pinpoint the source of the actual threat. Are these letters coming from Osama bin Laden’s cadre of Western-hating militants who have found a way to create anthrax with a few rocks in a cave somewhere? Is Iraq a partner of the Taliban, hoping to get a little revenge for the Gulf War? Or is some medical student somewhere upset that he got a D on his communicable diseases test, and spreading anthrax to show that pesky professor he really WAS paying attention?

Please don’t think I’m trying to downplay the threat that anthrax and other biological agents pose to our society and our lives. I’m well aware of the death they could be responsible for. However, an overwhelming majority of these anthrax scares are just that, scares, with no real danger attached to them. If bin Laden’s al Queada has the means to spread anthrax to the nation, why send out hundreds of letters with no biological threat at all? Seems like a tremendous waste of time and resources to me.

In fact, all these scares do accomplish is adding stress to an already cautious population and draining the war effort of severely needed manpower and resources.

This is the national equivalent to the three kids in elementary school who get the whole class in trouble, and a perfect example of a minority of Americans ruining the peace of mind of millions.