Grant.Reuter wrote:
Agilecipher wrote:
I'd be willing to give up a few minutes for a bag check to avoid random danger...
So you're willing to do worthless acts of worthlessness to not prevent anything... what idiot would put a bomb in a bag that was going to be checked?
You can check all the bags, make them clear, you can run bomb sniffing dogs before the race, but no matter what you do it doesn't prevent someone who wants to set off a bomb from setting one off in an open area. You can't make an open field/open race course secure, well you can but I don't think anyone wants to pay the cost of that race. How many races happen a year, between all the running races all the tris and everything else. 20k+?? and this has been going on for how many years with not one incident? Out of all these races for all these years we've had one bombing, yet now for some reason people feel unsafe going to a race. I don't get it.
Well said. It seems the only reaction we have anymore is benign overreaction. It's getting almost formulaic:
1. The media and politicians will continue to blow it out of proportion to meet their needs (I expect someone to propose new laws regarding pressure cooker registration and background checks any day now).
2. We will have plenty of fake outrage by keyboard warriors desperate to draw attention to their blogs. Most of these will be posted within 36 hours of the incident. Commenters will tell them how awesome they are.
3. Millions of ribbons are made up, generated, and sold, in appropriate colors. For convenience, the ribbons are not actually ribbon, but stickers, magnets, screen-printed shirts, etc. in the shape of a ribbon. I'm surprised the shape hasn't been trademarked.
4. The phrase "in solidarity with" gets thrown around a lot.
5. We implement mostly useless and ineffective strategies to "prevent" it from happening again.
6. We will accept these inconveniences and additional costs in the name of "patriotism." Yeah, we're really showing them who's boss.
7. The insurance companies latch on, and we won't be able to afford to race because the insurance and costs of extra security will skyrocket.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The net result is that we don't actually *do* anything. In the meantime, there are probably thousands of individuals and other groups out there plotting some action that nobody has thought of yet. Effective terrorists stay a step ahead of everybody. This is how terrorism works - making people fearful of normal living.
Sorry. I went off on a rant there and will probably regret this, but I'm just tired of the fake outrage.
Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador