What in the bloody hell is going on here? That is not a rhetorical question; I am really trying to find out. War seems to be a very real possibility for the United States with not one, but two countries: Iraq and North Korea.
An airplane crashed in Colombia carrying U.S. citizens who are, most likely, being held captive by rebels at this very minute.
There are things happening in this country and around the world, and there is plenty of news to analyze. But all I can get is news about what the color of the day is. In fact, coverage of what color the current "terrorist thermometer" reads has replaced the real news.
As of Tuesday, the color is orange. But look out! In a few days, the color might be yellow. This is the basis of a front-page story in Tuesday's Arizona Republic.
Yellow, of course, means that there's a slight chance the country could be subject to a terrorist attack of any kind at any time. But please, don't worry.
Now, at orange, you should worry. In fact, you may want to employ massive amounts of Glad wrap and duct tape to secure yourself and your family against a biological attack that could come at any moment. A Feb. 12 article in USA Today will get you started with a shopping list of necessary supplies. Be on guard! But don't show fear, because if we show fear, the terrorists win.
Should you ever forget what the color of the day is, simply turn to FOX News, since it's conveniently displayed right above the time, so that you may be ever mindful of the imminent danger you are facing.
The mystical power that controls the color of the day is the Department of Homeland Security, which is staffed with experts trained in interdiction and analysis, whose daily assessments are translated into the appropriate alert status.
The Feb. 12 edition of The New York Times reported most of the individuals that work on the advisory system admit it is more of an art than a science. Great. So what I'm hearing is that no one really knows if or when Americans will be subject to another attack, but those Homeland Security people sure are guessing really hard.
FOX News reported Tuesday that the orange alert could last as long as 40 days, unless the administration sees signs of things slowing down. What things? No one seems to know.
In their efforts to raise public awareness and ensure that the American public is prepared, both journalists and the Department of Homeland Security are accomplishing nothing. They are unnecessarily frightening the public and denying them access to real, usable information. By devoting so much airtime and ink to empty stories about what the color of the day is, valuable space for hard news and substantive analysis is vastly reduced.
There have been reports of people sealing off their homes with plastic and duct tape. Such a reaction is not one of measured preparedness. It is pure paranoia. If generating this kind of panic is the best thing this system does, then it is sure to be a failure. If or when the alert ever goes to red, I don't think anyone knows what will happen.
Of course, there is always the possibility that nothing will happen. The nation has grown accustomed to life under "condition yellow." If, in fact, this orange phase lasts for 40 days or more, people will get used to that as well. The only color left on the five-color scale is red. It seems that while this new tool to fight terror is only about a year old, it's almost obsolete.
Constant vigilance is impossible to maintain. Eventually, people wise up and realize that the sky is not, in fact, going to fall on top of them. They stop listening to the little Texan that cries wolf all the time. Until one day the sky does fall, and the wolf is lying in your bed dressed like grandma (have I forgotten any clichés?).
It seems to me that journalism has a unique opportunity to save the Homeland Security Department from its own zeal.
Not every journalist in North America needs to pull out the color swatches and eagerly await word from on high. Tell the people what they need to know. A simple indication of a change in alert status and some reasoning for it is, in my mind, plenty of information. Anything more is unnecessary fuel on the fires of paranoia. Anything less, of course, would be uncivilized.
Chris Kotterman is a political science and journalism senior. Reach him at chris.kotterman@asu.edu.
