Here’s an alert: life is dangerous, so live it
The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert last week for all U.S. citizens traveling in Europe. As soon as I heard about it, I was shocked–mostly by the giant waste of time and energy by the government and media in issuing and promoting this alert.
The alert is remarkably vague. Basically, there’s a possibility that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations are planning an attack somewhere in Europe. Where, when, what–we don’t know. The why, I suppose we can assume.
The vagueness of the U.S. State department travel alert frustrates me. But the possibility that someone might actually change their travel plans because of the alert discourages me even more.
There’s an inherent risk in traveling, in living. There’s always the possibility (however slim) of being in the plane that crashes, getting mugged while walking alone, slipping in the rain and breaking a bone. No matter where you are in the world, there’s a possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (see the people who headed into work on September 11, 2001 or the vacationers who were enjoying Indonesia when the tsunami hit in 2004).
In both life and travel, there are things you can control and things that you can’t. All you can do is use your common sense, hope for the best and live life to its fullest. Avoiding subways, rail systems, airports when Europe is so amazingly connected by public transport systems and a completely different culture is just an hour away? I think not.
There’s always the chance of things going wrong. You can die any day. That’s life–and it’s part of what makes it so thrilling and beautiful. I’d much rather live in the moment, doing something I love–experiencing the wide variety of lifestyles, cultures and culinary traditions in Europe–than waste a moment on uneasiness. Once you start worrying, once you start changing plans, once you let terrorists and criminals affect your life: that’s when you’ve lost your freedom.
To anyone who is considering changing their European travel plans because of the travel alert, why? What do you think about the travel alert?
