I would like to start by letting everybody know that I am just as sick of hearing about the World Trade Center attacks and anthrax threats as everybody else. I hardly ever bother to pick up a newspaper anymore because I hear enough about it just walking down the street and being at work.
In fact, that topic seems about as popular as talking about the weather these days. Most of this information that the news is broadcasting is pointless. They interrupt shows just to let the people know that another person might have been exposed to anthrax. This recent anthrax threat is terribly annoying, but it is something I must respond to.
I find it very interesting that terrorists would attempt such a scheme. It seems highly ineffective. My father, a retired government employee who worked special detoxification cases of this sort said, "I would rather be exposed to anthrax every single week for the rest of my life than have these crazy people drop Sarin gas on us." Reading that statement you probably think that my father is crazy, but he is absolutely right. Have you really thought about the "seriousness" of anthrax?
First of all, skin anthrax can only be contracted if you touch the infected material and have an open wound. Airborne anthrax can be inhaled, but a great quantity must be inhaled for one to get it. It is not something that is contagious. Also, hospitals can treat a disease like anthrax. Most of them have the vaccine on hand and those that don't can easily obtain it. It is basically no problem at all. There are more deadly gases being used all over the country right now just to filter your Nutrasweet. I would be more worried about terrorists getting a hold of that than sending anthrax through the mail.
I would even be willing to bet that it probably isn't even terrorists sending the anthrax through the mail, at least not in every single case. Anthrax is not a hard substance to acquire. Almost any idiot could get his hands on it and in light of the events within the past month, it would not surprise me one bit if some moron decided to mail it to people, especially when you start to think about the places it actually has been mailed to and the people who have been exposed to it.
It has not been your everyday common person walking down the street that has been exposed to anthrax, but news anchors, senators, and big business and corporate employees. It seems to me that whoever is sending the anthrax is not sending it out to really harm people, but rather to have the attention of the media. And it is working. They have the media attention. Maybe they would stop the bullshit if the media stopped dwelling on it.
Such media attention on anthrax has caused post office lobbies in Western New York to shut down after normal business hours. If you want to mail a letter and you cannot do it from work, or even if you have mail to pick up on the way home from a day at work or school, you better forget about going to the post office to do it. I guess they're right-nothing stops the U.S. mail.
Nothing, that is, but terrorism.
