Shadow Of Fear

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If many people had a bad passage last week, there were also plenty who were trying to make their peace with war. "The vast majority expect us to win this war on terrorism sooner rather than later," says another lawyer in Chicago. "There likely will be other terrorists attacks and other American casualties--but you can't live your life like you're the next to go." How much sleep do we have to lose, how many routines do we change, before we should count ourselves as casualties? If we stop taking the subway, are we wounded? What if we skip a grandchild's baptism because we don't want to get on the plane? Have they won? That which does not kill me makes me stronger--but who decides which it will be?

We are now deciding every day, deciding whether the cost of caution is too high, discovering whether we actually fear doing nothing more than doing something that frightens us. Because we know that this is the definition of courage--not an absence of fear but a willingness to live and move in its company, without becoming its hostage. If it weren't frightening, it wouldn't be a war; if it weren't about our most precious freedoms, it wouldn't be worth fighting.