Do you think anything bad will happen next weekend?

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There's been plenty in the news about the possibility of another terrorist attack(s) on July 4th. One the one hand, if you wanted to hit America on a day that would be meaningful, the 4th is the perfect target. On the other hand, since the 4th is such a perfect target, security is going to be especially high. Personally, I don't give much creedence to the guy who allegedly intercepted the phone call about the attack on Las Vegas. The chances that a phone call from the other side of the world would be intercepted by someone who just happens to speak Arabic, IMO you don't get those good of odds even in Vegas.

I had been thinking about going home to Michigan next weekend because my neice's birthday is July 5th. And if the world does go Mad Max, I think I'd rather be in the country than in the city. Hell, if it got really nuts in 45 minutes I could be in Canada. The downside is that Keith can't get the time off from his job so I'd be making the trip home solo, and if anything really bad happens I don't want to be apart from him.

I feel pretty silly worrying about all this. I wish I had more to do at work, that way I wouldn't be spending so much time reading the Freedom forum and Sierra Times! :)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Answers

I've been ignoring the TV pretty much, and visiting darn few forums, so I didn't even hear any of this until now. I'm not going to worry. I am going to actually be in workshops all day July 4 - July 7. The retreat center we're going to be at probably won't have much staff around, so I don't know if anyone would hear anything to tell us. I suppose the leader's wife would call us if the US was invaded or attacked or whatever is supposed to happen. I just don't think I'm in that big of a target area, even at the retreat. Happily, it's near enough to home that I won't be staying there. I'll be coming home every evening to feed critters and to sleep. I suppose I might worry more if I were in a big city as you are, Sherri. However, I don't think Indianapolis is likely to be considered a "desirable target" either!

Anyway, I don't think July 4th is a great day to pick. As you say, security will be tighter. Wouldn't they want to pick a "surprise" sort of day?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002


I dunno but I wonder about the same thing. A while back the gov warned us about suicide bombers. This ain't palestine so if there's gonna be suicide bombers its gonna be on a grand scale, not some guy walking into a mall or something.

"They" seem to be big on symbols and I agree the fourth would be a significant time but I'm hoping nothing will come of the warnings. I'm gonna stay home anyway. Too much work to do.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002


Sherri, I'm with you about the guy that ease dropped on the phone conversation. But, if the FBI determined that it really did happen, they, the FBI, needs to be put on Histories Biggest Blunders for going public with the information. I'm not a terrorist expert but I'd think that they'd want to hit places with lots of people present and a place that would disrupt the economy. While Vegas has a lot of people, I think the only economy it would hurt would be Nevada's but at the same time, it would help all the other states because the people who would otherwise be throwing their money away in Vegas would have to spend it at home. I know it would have an effect on some of the other industries but they've got better targets to go after. What boggles my mind is that they didn't hit us again right after the Towers. If I'd have been a terrorist, I'd have hit again within a few days while the nation was running around in a state of confusion, uncertainty and disbelief. Maybe Wall Street or many of the major IRS offices. That combined with the Anthrax scare would have just about done us in.

If I were you, I'd go about my life and not spend a lot of time worrying about another attack. You can't second guess them. I'm afraid that we're going to hear the same rumors on every major holiday.

Wildman, (still boggling)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002


Bet there is only so many crazy people who want to kill themselves and they are currently busy with the jewish problem. Plus how organized could they be right now? .....Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Guess I'm totally "in the dark" about the possibility of attacks this weekend also!! About the only time I happen to read any news is on my msn homepage when I turn this thing on. And we seem to never get a chance to watch the boob tube lately!!

Sherri...I wouldn't dwell on this too much either if I were you. Like Joy said, I don't think that Indianapolis would be a target area. I certainly can understand you wanting to be in the country though instead of in ANY big city!! In large city, I'd worry more about possible biological attacks in maybe a large bus terminal, subway or airport. A terrorist can carry a alot of deadly spores of a disease hidden in something as common as a fountain pen!! Those people would never realize that they'd been exposed to anything and so would spread the disease where ever they went. Now that I think about it...I'm probably not cheering you up much...am I :-)??!! But, I really think that that target of an attack occuring on the Fourth of July would center around something truly American...maybe the Statue of Liberty, any one of the National monuments or possibly Disney World... which is truly an American icon!!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002



Indy used to be pretty high up on the hit list during the Cold War, but since they shut down the Naval Air Warfare Center and moved it to Maryland I hope our status has dropped. We do still have the Army Finance Center here; if you're in the Army and you get a paycheck, it comes from Indy. My ex-husband was a civillian engineer working for the Navy at NAWC, he almost got sent over during Desert Storm to help the Marines set up some equipment he had designed but then the ground war broke out and they didn't need it anymore.

I wasn't thinking so much of an attack on Indy directly, just wondering what sort of nation-wide disruptions might occur with any sort of attack. For example, if Wall Street was hit what could that do to our banking system? Could I still go to the ATM and withdraw money from my bank account? The gasoline prices went nuts down here on Sept 11, it would be the pits making a 400 mile car trip with gas at $2 a gallon. My friend Liz's parents live in Las Vegas, I don't know if they're taking any special precautions or not.

I called my neice last night and told her I probably would be home for her birthday. :)

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002


Hmmm. Well, did you make Y2K preps, and have you kept them up? Some level of preparedness is good, particularly in an uncertain climate. People will panic and clean stores out. There was the great toilet paper debacle back in the 1970's (thanks to Johnny Carson, apparently). That is not an urban legend. I actually experienced it -- going into a store and not ONE roll of toilet paper to be found. I had no clue, nor did the store personnel, of what was going on. But we had to make do with Kleenex for a few days until a new shipment came in!

I still keep a garbage can full of water for flushing toilets (also buckets of water from my reverse-osmosis water filter waste water) and a number of 3 gallon jugs of drinking water that I rotate frequently (use, wash container, refill). I have extra food, but HORRORS! I am low on TP! Gotta get more! ;-)

Fill your gas tank before the 4th (a good idea anyway, since prices seem to go up at holiday time). Make sure your can for your lawnmower is filled too, then you have extra. Make sure you have batteries for your flashlights. Just stuff like that.

I guess I'm more nonchalant because I live far from the airport and could slip away to the west and wend my way up north on the secondary highways. Also, I over-reacted to the Y2K warnings, and so, I feel uninclined to panic again. Perhaps out of some embarassment for the first time . . . . :-(

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002


Yeah, Sherri, it will probably rain and be cold like it usually is...

(Just my thoughts, whistling past the graveyard),

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002


(If *Wall Street* were hit? What if Wal*mart* were hit??)

(btw, we were hit this week by WorldCom...or WhirledCon, as I'm becoming to think about it). Oh, hey, what's another 500 shares of something? Good thing we don't have kids; how would we teach them to trust any institution at all? Answer: We wouldn't. We don't. Have kids. Nor trust.

I'm drifting here...

My apologies. But sheesh..........

Why would the terrorists even bother? Maybe Karl Marx had it right a long time ago. Or the Vandals or the Goths...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002


Does anyone know of any websites where this is being discussed?? I probably should do some reading and catch up!!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002


Hi Sherri- Where's "home" in Michigan? I'm curious 'cause we just got back from there an hour ago or so!

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2002

I haven't been worried about it more than the usual worry in general. I have had some random nasty thoughts about the possibilities however.

How that all comes about...there was a movie years ago called 'The Assassination Bureau' which took place before the 20th century, with innovative methods of assassinating people (public figures, for hire). There was also a game I had read about called 'Murderer', in which a group of people would draw papers out of a hat at the beginning of the day. One would be the Murderer, and 'kill' one of the members during the course of the day. When the 'body' was found, all the others would try and deduce who had killed them. There are more rules to it, but that gives the background.

We used to play a version of this during the course of long boring days doing things like loading hay, seeing who could come up with the most devious method of killing another person --

Anyway, that gives you the background. Needless to say, I have had some really awful thoughts about what would be possible to do during the 4th Celebrations nationwide. It really wouldn't be very hard either.

Suppose that some of those fireworks shells were to be packed with radioactive materials? Or maybe Anthrax?

It could be even worse if whoever was sending out the anthrax virus went to work at a fireworks factory and packed it into shells at random to be sent all over the country.

Nevermind the TP, do you have your potassium iodide capsules handy?

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2002


Hey, it's been keeping ME awake.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2002

Debra, home is Imlay City, Michigan. It's a little dot on the map on I-69 halfway between Flint and Port Huron, or about 60 miles north of Detroit on M-53. It's known as "The Gateway to the Thumb". :)

I grew up on an 80-acre dairy farm that my grandparents bought after they got married in 1929. My dad built a house next door after he and mom got married and they still live there. My grandparents have both passed away, but my middle sister and her family lives in the house now. My oldest cousin bought 5 acres on the back side of the farm a few years ago and built a house there for his family, and my other grandparents, youngest sister, and other 2 cousins all live within about a 30 minute drive. My brother and I are the only ones who ventured too far away from the nest, I'm in Indy and he's in Orlando.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2002


Gee Sherri, I had no idea you grew up on a dairy farm! Have you mentioned this before? I think that is so wonderful....what a history of knowledge you must have! For some crazy reason I thought you was a homestead-hearted but lifetime city slicker and I dunno why! Maybe cuz you never mention it; you must have lots of stories to tell.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2002


I guess I should qualify that statement a bit. I grew up on what was a dairy farm, but when the trend in farming started to be "get big or get out", we got out. I don't remember exactly how old I was when we sold off the herd, I think I was around 6 or 7 years old. Most of my memories are to vague to be of any practical use now, but they're still nice memories.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002

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