Just yesterday I mused about the media hype surrounding the 11 missing college students from Egypt. I still am against stereo-typing and tossing all peoples of Middle Eastern decent into the same pot with the rest of the Islamic fanatics.

The news today however has me contemplating somewhat. Is this a mere coincidence that these men went missing and a couple of days later air traffic out of London to the US is all but shut down? Any self-respecting conspiracy theorist would answer with a resounding, “Yes! I told you so.”

I on the other hand have my doubts that these two events are necessarily connected. I will agree that on the surface it appears to have relevance, yet I do also believe in innocent until proven guilty. It seems that lately we’ve been subscribing to this in a backwards fashion – guilty until proven innocent. In my opinion that can only erode what we as a country stand for, freedom of choice, freedom of speech and freedom to practice whatever we want whenever we want. Well, within reason of course. Ever try being free of taxes? Ha! But I digress again.

I’m supposed to be flying to Germany this Christmas. My son fought me on this for weeks. He did not want to get on a plane (he’s never flown) and be blown up by some terrorist (his words). I presented all the arguments about flying being the safest mode of transportation, increased security at the airports etc. I eventually calmed him down and he agreed to come on a visit to see my family.

He has not seen today’s news yet and once he does, how will I alleviate his fears once again? Hell, even I am a little rattled now and I love flying! Do I want to succumb to a somewhat rational fear of being targeted whilst flying the unfriendly skies? Or do I want to say, screw it, we only live once, let’s go. I’m honestly torn. For the sake of seeing my family once again after an almost 20 year hiatus – I think I will have to chance it and hope for the best. Hiding in a panic won’t change the outcome if “they” do decide it’s time to attack.