Color code security alert gives us the blues
Almost the first thing Tom Ridge did when he came to Washington to direct homeland security was to institute a system of color-coded terror alerts. In ascending order of the risk of terrorist attack, the threat levels went: green, low risk; blue, general risk; yellow, elevated risk; orange, high risk; and red, severe risk.
Or, as the general public interpreted them: vague sense of unease, nervous apprehension, urge to panic, raw fear and abject terror. Since March 2002, we have gone back and forth between foreboding and fear. We went to orange three times in the last four months; we’re now back to yellow.
For the general public, the threat levels were to “facilitate decisions” at home and work, whatever that means – nobody ever satisfactorily explained it. The colors provided endless fodder for late-night comedians, and irked color purists who grumbled that blue and green were out of order on the spectrum.
But for federal, state and local governments, increased levels had real costs because they required stepped-up security and protective measures for the length of the alert.
The thinking now is that threat levels as a rule shouldn’t be nationwide but to the areas at greatest risk according to specific intelligence. In short, a lot of people were being needlessly alarmed. Face it, there are places in this country that you couldn’t pay al Qaeda to terrorize. We don’t want to offend anyone, but deep down you know who you are.
There was also the feeling the public might become blase about the color codes. And it is true that codes yellow and orange were becoming one of those alarming little daily indices that cause us to worry about matters outside our ken, like the Air Quality Index or the Body Mass Index.
Until we next hear from Secretary Ridge, may all your threat levels be blue.