Paranoia Running Rampant

We live in paranoid times. Since September 11th, people are wary of terrorist attacks in this nation. I mean soon after the attacks in New York, Washington and the thwarted attempt that ended in Pennsylvania, there was the anthrax scare that had people screaming 'white powder' all day and all night! I can remember a wing in my office being shut down because someone had seen a white powder on the floor of the elevator in that wing. Not wanting to risk it being some sort of bio-weapon. We were basically locked down in our areas until the Haz-Mat team came and verified what most of us figured it to be. Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder (Lavender scented). Still, it's crazy not to be a bit cautious. Given that someone who had dropped some baby powder in the elevator which was enough to scare people (and our office was by no means the only place to suffer such frights), it's common sense that should be telling you to avoid such situations in the future.

I mean look at some of the events that have happened since then. There was the passenger on a plane in Florida who was getting antsy to get off his flight at the gate so he began saying that he had a bomb on board. When people started to freak out, the undercover air marshall pulled his gun and when the man refused to surrender, he was shot in full view of the passengers and those waiting in the terminal. It turned out that the man making the threat was actually off of his usual medication and so he didn't realize what he was saying. But again, you can see the heightened sense of security that is pervading and no one is willing to chance letting a potential terrorist go.

That being said, the Hares running club in New Haven, Connecticut is probably either very naive or very much enthusiastic about 'pushing the limits' of commong sense. Well what is the Hares running club? Quite simply, it is a group of joggers who mark various trails through unusual locations which other members of the club attempt to follow in an effort to vary jogging routines and trails. It supposedly adds a bit of flavor to runs that may otherwise be stale. I can attest to that fact. I used to jog quite a lot a few years back and after some time, the old trails became just that and I grew weary of seeing the same sites every day. So now your next question is probably 'how are the trails marked'? Well, it is not eco-friendly to mark territory with spray paint and unfortunately, (or fortunately) we are not like animals that can follow our individual scents for miles at a time so the only other solution is... you guessed it... powders dropped along paths.

Now I know what you're thinking, why would anyone do that given the current situations out there. Well, according to the running club members who were caught doing these things in an IKEA parking lot, this was just their way of doing it and they had never run into problems in the past. That may be but isn't it a little suspicious to see someone sprinkling powder in stores or parking lots? I mean okay, you are certainly hard pressed to find some means of marking a trail but do you really need to get charged with attempted bio-terrorism in order to fully understand the gravity of sprinkling powder somewhere?

Some will tell you that there are some fitness fanatics who are a bit... nutty like that. I have seen some who run in the roads or sidewalks with little regard for anyone other than themselves. I used to get bumped or yelled at by these guys when jogging at the track at work and I can understand that perhaps it's frustrating for those of us not as fast or fanatical as the die-hards out there but it's still no reason to think that the rules don't apply. I mean because of the seriousness with which this report was taken, much of the New Haven police and security forces were mobilized in response. You had the majority of resources in the area locked down to deal with the potential of a bio-terrorist attack.

People will argue that it's an overreaction to a not so unusual activity. I think that it's a case where someone was doing something that they obviously shouldn't. It is sad that what should be a fun activity is being viewed with such fear and skepticism. I mean it's disappointing that we can no longer enjoy things the way we did prior to September 11th but that's a result of the world we live in. We are the product of our environment and sometimes we have to look beyond our perceptions and think about how others may perceive our actions. I mean I was viewed as a potential threat on an airline for doing nothing more than listening to my iPod and reading a book. Who knows what would have happened if I happened to have some baby powder on hand!