I've always dreaded it, and I was happy to see a story in today's paper saying the Obama administration is looking at getting rid of the Homeland Security Color Coded Terrorism chart.
The thing that remains embedded in my memory is traveling through the airport, post 9-11. After a heavy & shoeless search at the metal detector check in point, (mine was extended, because I have a Titanium knee, so I always set off the alarm, and get sent to Area B - to assume the daVinci pose & have a TSA agent frisk me & use the hand held wand. After passing this stringent test, you could proceed into the inner sanctum of the real airport zone. There, you'd hear a prerecorded message being broadcast throughout the airport. Don't leave your bags unattended & a brief announcement about what Homeland Security color code the *Terror Threat o' the day* was.
I remember being in the restroom, beginning to hear the message, but then it was drowned out over the sound of flushing toilets.
I'd reconciled there & then, the sound of flushing toilets was equally effective. We would get these vague "remain vigilant" advisories, that were in fact too vague to be meaningful.
At least when you flushed the toilet, something happened. There were tangible results!
I think it was the Michael Moore movie, where a speaker did a segment reiterating this same theme- that the color would NEVER be announced as blue or green, because we were being programmed to *live in fear*.
Bloomberg: "The five-color coding system, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, goes from green, signaling a low threat of attack, to red, signaling a severe threat. Since its introduction in March 2002, the level has been changed 16 times but remained most of the time at mid-level yellow (elevated) or orange (high), the statement said.
The threat level has never been lowered to blue (guarded) or green. It was elevated to red only once, on Aug. 10, 2002, for flights to the U.S. from the U.K. after British police said they foiled a plot to blow up aircraft bound for the U.S., the department said. The alert level was lowered to orange six days later."
I bet if you asked 10 different people what colors are on the chart & what they mean... most would not know.... I don't know, because I always thought is was a bogus tap dance to keep us afraid & to pretend like they were doing something to prevent terrorism.
So thumbs up to the Obama administration for the initiative to scrap this useless relic, let the Smithsonian add it to the museum collection of worthless Bush paraphernalia.
It would be more amusing, and just as productive to recreate the robot from the Lost in Space show, to deliver WARNINGS! to us. Don't get me wrong, I don't think terrorism is a joke, just that the terrorism color coded chart is & was a joke.
