Fear of travel a threat to Americans' freedom

When you ventured from Yale for the purpose of eating turkey, you couldn't have missed the flags. The stars and stripes have invaded every inch of America, from patriotic bumper stickers and antenna flags, to red, white, and blue baby tee's and sweaters in local mall displays. You may even have thought the rest of country had been painted red, white, and blue in your absence.

The U.S. has reacted to Sept. 11 in two ways. The first, and most salient, is intense patriotism. While less obvious, the second is equally ubiquitous. It is not waving from a pole on every suburban front porch, but it is underlying the choices Americans are making, and transforming our culture, our economy, and our freedom: fear.

Yes, after watching the twin towers crumble in minutes, some fear is warranted. And fear, manifested in reasonable precautions, can serve a crucial purpose in the new age in which we live. We should be more aware of internal threats. We should follow international news more carefully. And if we see white powder, we probably shouldn't swipe our finger in it and take a sniff.

But the wave of irrational fear in the wake of Sept. 11 has gone far beyond basic precautions. And the ramifications have been extremely detrimental. Americans aren't buying and investing, causing the stock market to fall. Americans aren't flying (the number of American aviaphobics has risen about 20 percent), causing the airline industry to suffer huge losses.

I worry less about the investors and the corporations, though, than I do the millions of Americans who now prefer the comfort of their living room couch and the evening news to any sort of mobility or travel.

Resorts and hotels are empty. Study-abroad programs are experiencing a drop in enrollment. Even within the U.S., people aren't leaving their locales. Colleges that usually attract their students from local populations are seeing an increase in interest, as many students opt to stay closer to home. In the face of uncertainty and vague threats, Americans are staying put.

In a recent article, ["Travel—The New Test of Freedom," Christian Science Monitor, 11/15/01] Marilyn Gardner comments, "The current stay-at-home mood is also prompting some travelers to reconsider an intriguing question: what is travel, anyway?" She claims that more Americans are settling "for the vicarious pleasure" of reading travel magazines and watching travel shows.

Before the country denounces travel and mobility and supplants it with voyeurism, it is important to explore Gardner's unanswered question. Why would someone venture to explore Europe, attend college in a different state, or study abroad in a foreign country? The value behind moving or journeying to a different place lies more in immersing oneself in an unfamiliar way of life than it does in viewing it. Only when we move beyond our own borders do we have a chance to evaluate what lies within them with a different, more objective perspective. By viewing a documentary on the Great Wall of China, one doesn't grasp Chinese life in the way one does by living on Chinese soil. One of the best ways to find out what it means to be an American is to view Americans from overseas, where millions feel the ramifications of U.S. policies that we rarely stop to think twice about.

In these "United We Stand" days, when every citizen seems to be proclaiming those same three words and wearing the same three colors, variation in perspective is needed more than ever. We cannot rally united behind a president who has vowed to take a more active role in world affairs without committing ourselves to comprehending the world and venturing into it. We must not allow fear to paralyze us in a sea of patriotic unanimity, for the coupling of fear and pride is a dangerous one.

Colleen Kinder is a junior in Morse.

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