I saw this in another post and thought I'd bring it up, it's been on my mind for a while.

Does anyone actually take heed of an "orange" warning?

Do you change your daily routine in any way?

Do you feel safer or more informed when the levels change?

Do you feel the system is a good thing or a bad thing?

IMHO, the whole thing is pretty ridiculous.

What are people's thoughts on this?

Waxy

 

1. not that ive seen
2. no
3. no
4. niether good or bad, its just a way of stating something that no one is sure about to begin with and cause people to freak out when its not even neccasary to be worried.

 

I concur. The system is quite moronic.

I could spend hours pointing out why I feel this way, but I would like to see others opinions on this matter before doing so.

Whistler

 

It could be the advance warning system for everyone to purchase Duct Tape

 

You forgot about the gas masks

 

Rather silly system IMHO. I could not tell you what the current alert is and could care less. I always try to be alert to my surroundings. People can only keep up a high vigilance for so long without it breaking down.

Chris

 

Regardless of the warning level our government considers us to be at, I have felt since 9/11 that we're never very far from another terrorist act. Obviously it probably won't be in the form of an airplane, but we are vulnerable in so many other ways. There is absolutely no way to stop someone that is willing to die for their cause, ie. suicide bombers. We can kid ourselves into thinking were safer because of what we're doing in Iraq, but the truth is it's our very presence in the middle east that is making these extremists angry.

 

That's the nail on the head IMHO.

The whole thing is so pointless, even all the increased security at airports etc... I think it's been proven that if you are an intent terrorist willing to die for your cause, let alone a college kid trying to make a point, that the security is a joke.

IMHO, it's a hassle and a drain on the economy, not much more.

How many times can the gov't cry wolf?

Like Whistler, I could probably go on for a couple of pages on the reasons why I think the whole thing is a farce.

Waxy

 

this is the second attempt im making at posting here on this thread; the first time i couldnt get it to work and i think the mods got some kind of notice that there was a server problem; in any event if you mods didnt please note that about an hour ago i couldnt post here due to a server error of the board according to the message i got.

Now for my response.

I live in NJ right outside of NYC, Prior to this i lived in NYC in the borough of Brooklyn. There are five boroughs that make up NYC and manhattan is known as the city proper. On 9/11 i was working in Brooklyn about five miles from the trade center as the bird flies, and saw alot that i wish i hadnt, experienced alot i wish i hadnt, and know several people who were either at and survived, at and didnt survive, or were part of the rescue effort and recovery/clean up crews that were there after the terrorist attacks.
Since 9/11 NYC has been under the high level of terror attack, i think one level before they are waiting for the event to take place. The color system is a joke tho. here there is little security that has any affect on people on a daily basis. the only thing they do under this level is to search every person who goes to a ball game or into a government building ( ie courts or county clerk offices),When they have new years day or something they use the opportunity to search everyone in the area. They claim its under the guise of making it safe. In reality its our crazy mayor who is using this to give tickets out to people who are trying to sneak alcohol or something into the event. they ban people from carrying any kind of hand bag into an event etc.They confiscate everything they can from nail clippers to pocket knives that are well within legal limits here.
When they go into hig alert you will see a couple of cops in cars sitting by the bridges and tuinnels, sometimes accompanied by a national guardsmen detail of one or two guys standing there with a machine gun. they search an occasional truck, usually a rental truck but not every one that goes through. sometimes they will search a car too, but you know they search the car of some older couple that may be smuggling geritol to the senior center or something. This is rediculous. any terrorist knows that even there the likelyhood of being stopped is extremely slim. also the way they have it set up all he would have to do is hit the gas and go, the guardsmen and cops there are not prepared to stop him before he would get onto the bridge or tunnel and detonate any kind of explosive he has. when they announce the higher level all i can co unt on is figuring an extra hour commuting between jobs .
Any terrorist who wants to carry out some kind of mass destruction will find his way to get it done. I think that if this country wants to put any kind of stop to the terrorists they need to get infultrators into the groups and expose the players, and then just kill the members of the group. its totally rediculous the way it drags on and all. I think that the government knows more or less who the terrorists are and need to watch them, and do what they have to do regarding that particular bunch of radicals ( and i by no means mean anyone of middle eastern descent, but i do mean those places where radicals of any group, religion, creed etc gather and spew forth their rhetoric and other assorted bile) not tie up the general public so much with all this hype and bullschwa designed to lure the citizens to think they are actually on top of something for once

 

Some people are pure evil. Whether they're born that way or acquire it through upbringing doesn't really matter. They hide behind a "cause" to commit some of the most heinous crimes against predominately innocent bystanders. If we could seek these people out and remove them from society, we could not only end terrorism but violent crime in general. Since we don't have much luck dealing with it among our own citizens, I'm not holding my breath for us to stop the international criminals.

 

Things dont change much up here due to these alerts other than the border patrol is more visible than other times.Too many false alarms will tend to make us complacent.I feel we should be at a high state of alert all the time.

 

I think the color alert system is a good idea. The government has always had a simular system, with emphisis toward the intelligents and military communities. With 9/11 they've just expanded it to all deptments of the gov. and they let the general public in on it, too.

It's a lot better than having a police state. Try crossing the border between Isreal and Egypt. Multiple checkpoints with hard questions asked at each one. Chainlink fence with barb wire the whole way. Border guards point guns right at you, with safety's off and fingers on the triggers. It's a very serious place.

Lots of countries have laws in place where running from the cops is a reason to use deadly force.

Holland is kind of a funny place. They've legalized a lot of the, "sins," we have in the States. But if you look, they haven't had much of a terrorist problem in decades. Years ago terrorist, (I believe there were four), hijacked a commuter train with a bunch of people on board. The Queens response was to order the whole train fired up - killing everyone. Hostages are worthless. It kept them safe from terrorism for years.

For me, going from Yellow to Orange means I can't take a tour of the hydro electric plant and probably have to take my shoes off at the airport. I least I know what the alert statis is. It could be worse.

 

I think its a good thing as well...maybe not that it changes what i do on a daily basis but it reminds me that the government is gathering intellegence and that gathering is what changed the alert level....

 

Don't forget the plastic tarps which are to be secured to doors and windows via the duct tape

On another note, my life does not change one bit when the terror level changes. I simply refuse to let some nut cause me to change my routine in the least. They can announce whatever level of threat they want to; most likely I would not even know about it for a day or two.

 

i try never to keep too much of a routine, but the only time i react to something like that is when the base threat-con goes up...otherwise i try to be alert all of the time. the current system of colors does nothing, except cause general worry among people and let would-be terrorists know that we are looking closer at that point than other points.