It's yellow, it's orange. Maybe a soft coral or an off-white. Thanks to Tom Ridge, secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security and creator of the five-level, color-coded terrorism warning system, we are now at the orange level, the second highest level, which means there is a high risk of terrorist attacks.
This system can give people a feeling of infancy. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, though more than two years ago, are still fresh in people's minds, especially with the Bush administration's war against terrorism. But this juvenile color-coded system is not the way to tell people attacks might be coming.
It's enough to inform people they are at a high or low condition of security, but adding the colors is just a slap in the face. When the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks happened, the FBI received a lot of slack because some felt they knew about the attacks but said and did nothing. Now it's almost like they are mixing colors together so if future attacks happen they can say "I told you so." So as long as the warning level isn't on low, they will look like they are protecting us.
True enough, the government doesn't need to cause hysteria by telling people terrorists are flying into the United States right now, but informing us of extra-needed security, minus the colors, is a better way to go about it. Some people might not know what to do with each color level. The "orange," or high level, according to the Red Cross, means we should be alert and report any suspicious activity, exercise caution when traveling, review your "Terrorism- Preparing for the Unexpected" brochure and prepare to donate blood, if necessary. This can all be said without the colors.
Since our government is receiving tapes with possible messages of terrorist plots, it is time to start arresting these possible terrorists, instead of leaving Americans terrified of colors in their homes.
The color warnings are just silly. Instead of using a color palette to decide how Americans should live their day-to-day life, the government should offer specific information or no information that would cause fear among U.S. citizens.
