[The following is a guest post by freelance writer Ann Green.]

A Decade After 9/11-- More Fear in the Air

I was a bit up in the air on Christmas. That is, I was flying to San Diego with my husband and son, as an "isolated extremist" was attempting to "man-cause a disaster," to use some of the latest in Orwellian terminology. Since 9/11/01 I've been, like many, more nervous about flying than I had ever been before. Back in the day I just had my husband recite the physics of lift during take-off, and I was more or less okay.

With the flight home still facing us, news of the would-be mass murderer and accidental underwear model spread. What made things more worrisome for me was the fact that my daughter would be flying to Israel -- the nation which the wealthy Nigerian with explosives on his privates and 72 virgins in his dreams would call "the Zionist entity" -- the day before the rest of the family would be returning from California. I have total faith in El Al security, but my daughter was booked on Swiss Air. My husband assured me that the Swiss are very competent in matters of security, and he is in a position to know. But hey, I'm a mom, I don't know from "don't worry."

Had the explosives been successfully ignited, all aviation would have been immediately grounded, as it was on 9/11. But the explosives were successfully smuggled on board. They didn't kill everyone only because of the incompetence of the terrorist. So why wasn't all aviation grounded? Who knew that this wasn't another multiple attack?

From then on I wasn't so much vacationing as compartmentalizing. It wasn't as though my worrying would change anything, I told myself. With occasional sneak peeks at the news, we did manage to enjoy ourselves. Animal-lovers to a fault (California pun), we spent time at the famed San Diego Zoo and the zoo's Wild Animal Park. We were particularly drawn to the big cats -- the cougars, lynxes, a rare black jaguar and of course, a magnificent lion - who obliged us with a magnificent roar. The thought that a fence or thick pane of glass was all that separated us from these killer kitties was a bit thrilling and a bit sobering. I couldn't help thinking that an animal kills so that it can eat or to protect itself and its young, but only a human will kill for an ideology, out of hatred, and to keep others in a state of fear.

I'd rather not live -- or vacation -- in fear, but I can't keep my head in the sand either, like the ostriches we saw on farms along the highway to Escondido. (Who knew there's a market for ostrich eggs and ostrich jerky?) In his new book Conquering Fear -- Living Boldly in an Uncertain World, Rabbi Harold Kushner writes, "Our goal should not be the total absence of fear but the mastery of fear, being the master of our emotions rather than their slave. Our goal should be to recognize legitimate fears, dismiss exaggerated fears, and not let fear keep us from doing the things we yearn to do." Wise words, but difficult to put into action. Those who were afraid to fly were once the objects of our mild amusement. Now who among us isn't at least a little apprehensive when boarding a plane or knowing that a friend or family member is flying? I have close relatives who travel weekly for business. We all have loved ones who are frequent flyers.

On December 25th, a Muslim in his 20s, who had been reported to the CIA by his father, who paid cash for a one-way ticket and carried no luggage, was waved aboard an international flight in Amsterdam, no doubt to the trained smiles of the flight crew. Meanwhile, the crack security team at Logan Airport, departure scene of two of the 9/11 planes, confiscated the toothpaste of a 16-year-old from Newton. 300 men, women, children and babies were almost murdered in Detroit - and who knows how many on the ground might have died? -- and I have to write the word "Colgate" on my shopping list.

This is how we fight evil almost a decade after losing 3000 souls to those who think us not only infidels, but surely fools as well.