"And the things that we fear / Are a weapon to be held against us . . ."

Today's USA Today has a really interesting column from an NYU physician about what he called the "fear epidemic" in which this country seems to constatnly find itself. The specific topic for the piece is the potential avian flu pandemic, the latest in a constant string of things that go bump in the night on a global scale after 9/11. The point is that we often fear the more remote danger while worrying enough about things that might actually harm us. Of course, given the current administration's reliance on fear as a political tool, that's not surprising.