There are some risks that we still must take in daily living...BUT do we HAVE TO take our families to a NAMED Terrorist Target: WDW? I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. If I was unaware of the threat and something happened; I'd be able to live with that. I just can't knowingly fly my family down to one of the most likely places in America to be targeted by the next terrorist. Disney will address this treat; but right now it's simply not safe.
I think my point of view is pretty different from yours.
For the past 15 years, I've taught way too many kids who lost a father or mother or brother or aunt or uncle or grandparent through terrorism. Those people went to work at the World Trade Center on a day in September and were lost. Many of the kids I've taught were too young to even be aware of the loss at the time.
And I've gone to so many student funerals since I first began teaching. There was Deirdre, who was on TWA fight 800 when it exploded over eastern Long Island a few minutes after taking off from JFK. And Mary, who died of CF two months after graduating from high school. And two girls from the school I was teaching in when the van they were driving in was hit by a train as they rushed home to make curfew. And Timmy, who threw his body over that of his girlfriend as their car approached a tree on a stormy night; she survived. And far, far too many others. We lost a Senior this year who went to bed a happy healthy 17 year old, woke up a few hours later with a blinding headache, and died a few days later of an aneurysm.
It's, hands down, the worst part of teaching: the realization that we never know what's to come.
I've learned that there is no place to hide from danger, be it in the form of an act of terror or an act of nature or an accident. I can't wrap my students or my own children in bubble wrap. So we're aware of our surroundings, we try to stay safe, and we live our lives.
WDW isn't a new target for terrorism. It, like the Superbowl and a million other places where people gather by the thousands, has always been on the radar of those who would do us harm because what we believe differs from their beliefs. As, as we saw again last weekend, it doesn't have to be a big, high profile target to hurt each of us to the core.
I agree-- you should probably not go to WDW. And I mean this sincerely, as I would say it to a friend. Your mindset is different from mine, and you would probably worry too much to enjoy your vacation.
But we're keeping our plans to go to WDW next month. We'll take as many precautions as we see reasonable-- and I'm a pretty timid person when it comes to danger. But we'll go.
