Every day we are reminded that terrorism is bad and getting worse. It’s part of my morning routine: coffee, breakfast bar, and a serving of bad news from channel 4. There was another car bomb in Iraq. Fatah is fighting Hamas in Gaza. Medical doctors with Al-Qaeda connections are responsible for a major strike in London. Scotland Yard discovered the plot in time, but what about the next attack? When will it happen in my part of the world?

I think about terrorism daily. But I usually brush it off with one of the standard responses.

1-“It’s just the way things are. We might as well ignore it.”

2- “I’m sure Homeland Security is on top of this. There’s nothing I can do.” Or…

3- “What did they say about terrorism? Well, who cares? I don’t want to know the details.”

Something inside of me insists that individuals must be able to combat terrorism. How would we handle a different problem? How would we react to a sudden decline in the stock market? What would we do if a new virus was spreading and threatening to become an epidemic? Surely there would be some things that we could do. Let’s see if we can discover and practice some personal anti-terrorist strategies.

Recently I was surprised to see a television ad from the Department of Homeland Security warning families to have a plan about terrorism! It said that terrorism is a problem for all of us. It urged families to be ready if something should happen. We must have a plan for what we will do. We need to know how we will communicate with each other. And we should have a kit of emergency supplies.

Here are Internet links to this information from the Department of Homeland Security:

Ready America

Ready Business

Ready Kids

I believe there is more we can do to help stem the tide of terrorism. We will consider these things in our next commentary. In the meanwhile, let’s all get started with these suggestions from Homeland Security.