A real terror threat Americans face

Concerns are being expressed about the U.S. Justice Department plan to try Kali Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorists at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York at 500 Pearl St. in Manhattan. This courthouse is just blocks from where the World Trade Centers attacks occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.


Those expressing concerns note that the site of the trial in New York City told pose dangers to the citizens of the city by other terrorists who may target the city during the trials.


There are also those who fear that, if convicted and imprisoned in the United States, the citizens near the prison in which the terrorists are held could be in jeopardy.


The facts appear to dispute these concerns.


The odds of being killed in a terrorist attack in the year prior to the Sept.11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers was zero.


The odds in 2001, the year of the attack, were one in 100,000.


The odds in each year after 2001 to the present were once again zero.


Certainly, the United States could once again face another terrorist attack. But is the possibility of another attack, which receives constant attention by the media, a threat of terror that affects most Americans in their daily life?


Merriam Webster defines terror as a state of intense fear, a cause of anxiety, worry, and a violent or destructive act by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands.


So what are some of the greatest terrors that large majorities of Americans face daily?


How about the terror created by loss of one's home.


According to RealtyTrak, a real estate organization that tracks national foreclosures, in 2008 there were 3.1 million households that submitted foreclosure filings. That is one in every 54 households in America.  Of those filings 861,664 households ended up being foreclosed on.


What about the loss of good health or your life because of your health insurance companies decision to deny you coverage or certain medical procedures even if you do have coverage.


The examples of the terror are created when an American is denied health insurance or approval of a medical procedure that could threaten their health are most likely in the thousands or tens of thousands or even higher each day.


There is the story healthy but overweight 4-month-old denied health insurance coverage because he had a pre-existing condition, "obesity." This Denver Post report in October quotes the child’s father as saying an unnamed broker with their health insurance company told him, " 'Your baby is too fat,'"


Or the story of twelve year old Diamonte Driver of Maryland, who died because his mother, without health insurance, Medicaid or $80.00, could not find a dentist who would remove an abscessed tooth. The boy died after the infection from the tooth spread to his brain. The boy finally was hospitalized, but after two brain surgeries he died.  This story was reported in February 2007 in the Washington Post.


There are also the more than 600,000 Americans who file for bankruptcy each year due to medical expenses and as many as 75 percent of those had health insurance.


The terror doesn't end there.


According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 712,000 production jobs in manufacturing and 161,000-auto manufacturing jobs were lost in 2008.


A production worker in Ohio who was earning $10.50 an hour for 40-hour weeks and is laid off will receive unemployment benefits of approximately $210.00 a week.


Things get even worse in that other big presidential battleground state, Florida, where the maximum weekly unemployment compensation is $300.00, no matter how much you were earning.


This is assuming that your employer does not contest your right to receive unemployment benefits.


In Florida, if you were earning $40,000.00 a year or a take-home pay of $610.00, you will now be forced to live on half of that. Put another way, unless you were saving $310.00 a week from your pay or spending that much on non-essential necessities, you're in financial trouble.


Trouble that could lead to losing your medical insurance, use of your vehicle and possibly your housing.


That is a threat to your personal well being and safety.


If that's not enough of the real threats Americans face that could be focused on be the media and the government, consider these:


Domestic Violence is the leading cause of injury to woman age 15 - 44 (Centers for disease control).


In 2006, 5840 workers were killed on the job and when the employer was found at fault by the Occupation, Safety and Health Administration, the average fine was $10,133.00 (U.S. Department of Labor).


Mahatma Gandhi said, "Action expresses priorities."


Gandhi led his life and political movement that gained independence for India by acting contrary to the mainstream conventional wisdom of the time.


So should the President consider turning his attention to the unconventional in changing for the better the matters of importance that may not guarantee reelection, but most certainly would better peoples lives.


Medicare for all ages, a raise in the minimum wage to $10.00 an hour, making individuals in corporation criminal liable in worker deaths and raising fines 100-fold and restricting the trading of oil futures contracts to entitles that must take delivery of the oil and thus lowering gasoline, heating oil and natural gas prices.


These and many other actions would better the lives of the 19 percent of those, who according to the Bureau of the Census, lived in poverty in 2008, oh, and their parents, just to name a few million.


During inaugural address, the president said, "It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."


These are fine words and seem to express the president’s priorities, but to "begin in earnest the work," Mr. Obama should heed the words of Gandhi that "actions express priorities."