So as I’m writing this, the news is reporting that 12 people have come in contact with anthrax, and 1 of those 12 has died from anthrax. This anthrax thing was mildly scary for me up until about 10 minutes ago, when I started thinking about how dangerous driving a car is. I’d be willing to bet that in the time it takes me to write this, a certain number of people will outright die from an auto accident. So why does anthrax get all the fuss? Why aren’t health officials banning the use of vehicles? The anthrax scare is stupid, I’m tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of hearing about airport terminals getting shut down because of spilled salt, or people getting scrubbed down against their will for no reason. This is simply absurd. I don’t understand how Americans can look at the amount of car related deaths and write it off as acceptable, yet when a single person out of 260 million dies of anthrax the nation is thrown into a complete and utter hissy fit.
It’s because anthrax is a scary sounding word. That’s all. People hear the word and freak. They think it will make their arms explode, or turn their children inside out. And it’s the name of a heavy metal band that made a bad crossover rap song.