Unjustified panic: Why are you so scared of all the wrong things?

I was in a small group in the back yard of someone’s home when the talk turned to fear of terrorism. We were sitting next to the man’s pool while kids played in the water and the adults talked about scarier things.

“I’m just about scared to travel anywhere these days,” the man said. “The world is so scary now because of the terrorists. I’m sure not going to New York City or some big place like that. Why would anyone even think about living there these days?”

I hadn’t been saying anything, because I usually get myself into social trouble by being the lone dissenter in such situations. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, though, so I asked the man if he knew that more people were killed every single year in swimming pools than were killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Someone scoffed. A couple of people laughed.

“Oh, the pool’s safe,” the man said. “We keep the kids away when we’re not around, so we can control this. But when you’re dealing with terrorists, you don’t have any control.”

I kept my mouth shut, because I knew there was no way to make him understand a very simple statistical fact. Almost 3,000 people died in the World Trade Centers attack, but close to 3,500 people die in U.S. swimming pools each and every year. Tell me which you should be more afraid of.

People are terrible at comparing risks and being afraid of the right ones. Many of them are so scared of terrorism that they’re willing to let politicians take away our freedoms, yet these same people would scream bloody murder if someone suggested they shouldn’t have a swimming pool or that maybe it’s statistically riskier to go riding around in their car for no apparent reason.

The chances of being killed by a terrorist in this country are about the same as your chances of being killed by a tornado, which is to say that it’s an exceedingly small possibility. If you want to worry, you should be worried about your health, your driving, your swimming pool and various other things that are much scarier. Take a look at the actual leading causes of death — and the numbers of deaths — and ask yourself whether heart disease or a car accident is a bit more likely to affect you than a terrorist attack.

For the past 10 years, we’ve based much of what we’ve done politically around a false idea — the idea that terrorism is a serious threat to our safety. We’ve destroyed many of our liberties. We’ve spent uncounted billions of wasted dollars. We’ve scared millions of people. And for what?

In the meantime, somewhere around 24,000 civilians have been killed by the fighting that came about because of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and around 107,000 civilians died in Iraq after the U.S. invasion to “liberate” the people. Our dollars are funding the deaths of many, many more innocent people than were killed when the World Trade Centers were attacked 10 years ago — and we’re continuing to create more enemies.

It’s time to quit being so scared of terrorism. It’s a terrible thing when people die in terrorist attacks, but it’s an even worse thing when we allow an aberration to change everything about our country and the freedoms its people enjoy. Take a look at a serious, adult analysis of the risks and then start worrying about your driving and your health instead.