America is preoccupied with terrorism. Should it be this way? Certainly not. For the vast majority of Americans, the chances of dying in a terrorist attack are close to zero. There`s a higher probability you will die by falling off a ladder than getting mixed up in some terrorist plot. So why is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security constantly telling every American to be afraid? That`s a strategy that creates widespread fear without making America any safer. U.S. homeland security efforts should focus less on what is possible and more on what is probable. The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are minuscule. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the odds are about 1 in 88,000. The odds of dying from falling off a ladder are 1 in 10,000. Even in 2001, automobile crashes killed 15 times more Americans than terrorism. Heart disease, cancer, and strokes are the leading causes of death in the United States—not terrorism. We have the twenty-four hour newscasts to thank for spreading this unwarranted fear. Morover, terrorism is not ”foreign” to our shores. In 1950 a Puerto Rican nationalist attempted to assassinate President Truman. In 1954 Puerto Rican nationalists targeted the Congress, with five congressmen being wounded in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. We have also had many assassination plots succeed and President Reagan was wounded. - Four people died in the bombing of Fraunces Tavern, a historical building in New York City. The Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN is blamed for the attack, one of the 49 bombings in New York attributed to them between 1974 and 1977. - In 1975 a LaGuardia Airport building was the scene of a planted bomb placed there by Croatian nationalists. So we see New York City is no stranger to acts of terror. - In 1976 one of our allies, the military dictatorship of Chile, was behind a car bombing in Washington, D.C. killing the former Chilean ambassador and injuring another, consequently we are not strangers to car bombs. Following is a list of further terrorist incidents on U.S. soil. - 1981 Kennedy Airport Bombing. One man is killed when a bomb planted by a group calling itself the Puerto Rican Armed Resistance goes off in a men`s bathroom at New York City`s international airport. - 1983 U.S. Senate Bombing. A bomb goes off in the cloak room next to U.S. Senate in the Capitol Building. Two left-wing radicals plead guilty to the attack. - 1993 World Trade Center Bombing - 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing - 1996 Olympic Bombing - 1997 Abortion Clinic Bombing We must be careful to not arouse and frighten the people. Bear in mind that terrorism is a business here in the United States. Much money is to be made in spreading fear. Whole industries have come into being and profited by this war on terrorism, which is said to have no end.