While it seems appropriate for the government to shift the terrorist alert color level to red in time for Valentine's Day, the whole system is ineffective at best.

Sure, it's nice the government believes by giving us regular folks some purdy colors we'll feel better informed. But why can't they specify what each color means, and what grounds are for changing the color?

Today is orange. OK, we feel better now.

The terror alert system is a scapegoat for the government. By installing it, it has found a system if and when it has to deal with another situation like Sept. 11, 2001, it can say the American public was warned.

If another disaster occurs, instead of looking like uninformed fools and children blaming their sibling for breaking a rule, such as action taken by the FBI and Congress post-Sept. 11, the government can say, "We told you it was an orange day." And if nothing happens, and officials posted a green day, then by-gosh, they're geniuses, like flawless weathermen predicting peace or terror.

We the people need to have information, some way to distinguish what we can do and how safe we are on a red day compared to an orange one.

Instead of applying what each color means to a person's daily life, the system scares people. It's frightening because we don't know what we're supposed to be looking for.

The government, our elected protectors, can't just announce that we could be in grave danger today and then leave us in the dark.

The terror alert system seems like propaganda. Our government should be smart enough not to release such a flawed and useless system.

For having the nerve to apply such a system to our fragile lives, the government has earned a burnt-sienna rating today. As for what that means, it'll have to figure it out on its own.