If you're worried about dying, ignore terrorists and stop driving

Editor,

In recent days, the Associated Press reported that U.S. and European intelligence agencies are worried about a possible terrorist attack somewhere in Europe. The attack might be similar to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed about 170 people.

The Mumbai attack targeted westerners in India and was relatively low-tech with the majority of the terrorists using conventional guns.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department issued a “travel alert” warning Americans to “stay vigilant while traveling in Europe.” The Department of Homeland Security said the current national threat level is elevated (yellow), which means that there is a “significant risk of terrorist attack.”

But the threat of terrorism is omnipresent.
Statistically speaking, however, there is a slim chance that this threat could affect you. We should not allow terrorists, or these color-coded threat levels, to change our actions.
Fewer than 200 people were killed in the Mumbai attacks, and while I don’t mean to downplay that number, I think it needs to be considered in the grand scheme of things.

In 2009, there were 3,095 deaths related to world terrorism, according to Wikipedia’s List of Terror Incidences. The list includes deaths from car bombs in Baghdad to civil unrest in developed countries such as Spain and Ireland. In a world with about 6.8 billion people, 3,000 deaths is less than a drop in the bucket.

To compare, 33,808 people were killed in U.S. traffic fatalities in 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The same year, there were 13,636 murders in the U.S., according to the FBI’s website. The CDC estimates that 443,000 people in the U.S. die prematurely each year from tobacco-related causes.
If terrorists kill 3,000 people a year, and it causes Americans to change their lifestyles based on a fear that they might be the next victim, then the terrorists have already won. Look at the facts.

You are four times more likely to be murdered in the U.S. than killed by a terrorist. You are 11 times more likely to die in a car accident. You are 143 times more likely to die from tobacco-related causes.

Isolated terrorist attacks do what they’re designed to do: Create fear. We need to use common sense when choosing how to respond — if at all — to such acts.

Don’t let the terrorists win. Keep traveling. Enjoy your life. See the world. Study abroad. Avoid xenophobia, and meet people from other countries. Realize that while they may be culturally different, the overwhelming majority of people are ideologically the same.

In this modern world — and for the rest of our lives — there will always be terrorism threats. If you are worried about traveling to Europe based on this threat, let me strongly encourage you to think twice before getting behind the steering wheel.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, driving is probably threat level red — severe.
The world is a much safer place than what people would like you to think.

Drew Landis
UNM student