Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Why do we react so strongly to these events? The mainstream media are partly to
blame. Sensationalizing tragedy gets more eyes on the screen. But it also exaggerates the
impact of a disaster, causing viewers to overreact. More than once, I've found myself in
a place that was going through a crisis that made international headlines—terrorist bomb-
ing, minor earthquake, or riots. Folks back home call me, their voices shaking with anxi-
ety, to be sure I'm okay. They seem surprised when I casually dismiss their concern. In-
variably, the people who live in that place are less worked up than the ones watching it on
the news 5,000 miles away. I don't blame my loved ones for worrying. The media have
distorted the event in their minds.
I got an email recently from a man who wrote, “Thanks for the TV shows. They will
provide a historical documentation of a time when Europe was white and not Muslim.
Keep filming your beloved Europe before it's gone.”
Reading this, I thought how feisty fear has become in our society. A fear of African
Americans swept the USA in the 1960s. Jews have been feared in many places throughout
history. And today, Muslims are feared. But we have a choice whether or not to be afraid.
Americans who have had the opportunity to travel in moderate Muslim nations like Tur-
key or Morocco—and been welcomed by smiling locals who gush, “We love Americ-
ans!”—no longer associate Islam with terrorism.
Every time I'm stuck in a long security line at the airport, I reflect on one of the most
disconcerting results of terrorism: The very people who would benefit most from interna-
tional travel—those who needlessly fear people and places they don't understand—decide
to stay home. There's an irony here: If people stay home out of fear of violence fueled by
misunderstanding between cultures, they can actually bring on the danger they fear. When
we travel, we build understanding, making it harder for the governments of other countries
to demonize us through their propaganda…and harder for our government to demonize
other cultures through our propaganda.
I believe the most powerful things an individual American can do to fight terrorism
are to travel a lot, learn about the world, come home with a new perspective, and then
work to help our country fit more comfortably and less fearfully into this planet.
Terrorism by the Numbers
Reducing the tragedy of terrorist casualties to statistics strikes many people as dis-
respectful and callous. But I believe that when we overreact to the threat of the ter-
rorist, we empower the terrorist and actually become part of the problem. By setting
