I usually don’t like writing about stories like these but this one brings to mind two things.  First how terrorism is winning an insidious war and second, you can do the stupidest things when you are young.

A South Florida college student was arrested after authorities said he called in a bomb threat at the airport.  The reason was, he arrived late for his flight, was prevented from boarding, and got upset so he resorted to terror in a nutshell.  He eventually admitted there was no bomb and to being upset because he could not board the plane.  Short of this being a sad case of not taking responsibilities for your acts, it also raises another question, what kind of person loses himself to threatening others?  More to the point, is what type of education was he lacking?  What can be done to prevent what seems to happen more and more, lack of responsibility and lashing out on to others for your own shortcomings?  This is also a reflection of our society where people do not scratch the surface very often, preferring looking cool than actually being cool.  Remember, it is not the monk’s robe that makes the monk.  It’s who she-he is inside.  The amount of work he-she has done on her-himself.

The other point I mentioned before is that terrorism is exactly that, creating and instilling terror in the heart and mind of a society.  And at that, the so-called terrorists are winning.  We cannot take an airplane without liquids, laptops, finger nail clippers, etc.  What is the point of flying anymore?  Thank goodness we have teleconferencing.  The media is not helping either.  All the headlines seem to have to do more with sensationalism than reporting the correct truth.

I lived in Paris in the eighties when bombs were blowing off virtually everywhere, supermarkets, trains, city squares.  It was scary but no one gave in to panic.  Here is an even better example, Israel.  We could learn a big lesson from a country that gets hit very often, rebuilds and comes back to the same place that got hit and look like life goes on.  Much like Lebanon did for the last twenty years, it humbly rebuild itself and continued as if life did indeed go on.  Instead over here we are caught in a whirlwind of what-ifs and maybes and false-positives.  I just think we should not lose our cool and prove the point that no matter what terrorists think, we will not deter.  We will continue living and continue being what makes us great, thrive and being aware of our neighbors.