Fear and Loathing on Court Street

A little before 1 PM I ran out of my office on Court Street to grab coffee and food. Court Street from Joralemon to Montague was closed off. A police officer said that a suspicious package was found on the subway. I went into Court Order, a nice take out food place with great soups and salads, when the NYPD came and stretched a yellow "Police Line - Do Not Cross" tape from one of the doors of the shop to opposite side of Court Street. I left the shop without getting anything as the police officers began moving people further and further west on Court Street. I have heard of a lot of "bomb scares" before, but this was the first time that I remember actually feeling concern based on the scale of the NYPD operation, and the precautions being taken. As I walked down Court Street, I saw a woman walking hand-in-hand with her little girl and I realized the awful potential posed by modern times, how we in the US have, in so many instances, been shielded from it, but how awful, violent and frightening life in reality is for so many people around the world, in the Middle Eastern world in particular, the continual carnage in Iraq specifically. I thought about the velocity of sharpnel, nails and glass, and the fragility of human flesh, particularly that of a child.

When we were kids, back in the 60s, we worried about Wars to End All Wars. We learned about duck and cover. But the enormity of that type of conflict seemed so all consuming that it appeared you couldn't really worry about it. While that threat of "mutually assured destruction" was also a form of mutual terror, still, "Toe-to-toe nucular combat with the Russkies" (to quote Slim Pickens) had only one logical outcome. Today, the dangers seem closer, more intimate.

I saw a clip of the forthcoming HBO special on "Alive Day" with wounded young military veterans, and thought about the continuing civilian carnage reports from Iraq, and the latest promise of a "special gift" to be given on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, while possibly more psych warfare, also suggests how real the fears and how intimate the dangers this lower-tech threat can bring.

We just received word that the suspicious package was nothing to worry about. No buildings were evacuated. The trains are again running. There is nothing to worry about...
--Brooklyn Beat