I was born in New York City and was lucky enough to live - for a while - in a town without sidewalks. Now I’m back. So I’m a native New Yorker who has made the requisite visits to the Statue of Liberty and various museums, but who has never, never, not even for an instant, considered a visit to Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Besides, Scuttlebutt has it that most of the visitor’s to Times Square on that night are tourists or the young and sadly, neither category applies to me.

I find the city streets on an ordinary day, so congested at times, that I long to don a pair of wings – like Icarus –and soar above the crowds and remain there – unlike poor Icarus. This year, the crowds were seemingly greater than ever - undeterred by heightened terror alerts - and I questioned how people approached the whole terror issue at this particular moment. As aforementioned, Times Square would never be my destination, but if it were, I believe I would not be hobbled by Technicolor alerts.

In the first place, if we are to believe the words of our leaders, we have no reason to expect continuing acts of terror. Saddam Hussein has been captured, and since we went to war against Iraq to defend against weapons of mass destruction – which turned out to be as visible as the Emperors’ new clothes – and since Saddam has been identified by this same Administration as responsible for the acts of terrorism against us, we should now feel liberated from fear. If we don’t, there is a liar among us and we should keep our eyes fastened on the length of his nose. In the second place – and there always is a second place – it seems unlikely that any terrorists would attack on a holiday, particularly one in defense of which we are so well prepared, having called out the big guns, the small guns and perhaps some slings and arrows.

Historically, we have been attacked twice in the same locale – within an eight year span – and after the first incident we apparently did little to prevent a second similar but more intense, attack. The terrorists seem familiar with our vulnerabilities and sometimes I think our super power mentality hampers us from acknowledging that we don’t have exclusivity over, as Hercule Poirot would say, “the little gray cells.”

If I experience any fear it would be at our own police forces armed with their guns. I have learned, from intense scrutiny of the off mainstream news media, that terrorists are ingenious in their methods of destruction and men with guns are prone to use them, and as a consequence, those who are innocent quite frequently get hurt.

My other fear – and there is always another fear – are those acts of terror such as loss of civil rights, loss of freedoms so hard fought for in the past, loss of empathy for the sick and the old and the poor – Well look, we are bludgeoned with acts of terror every day and these acts are so frightening that events in Times Square are a mere walk in the park. Totalitarian states don’t suddenly erupt, they evolve, and often resulting from the escalation of miniscule acts of terror. No one refers to these little acts as terror, but trust me, they are just that, and the cumulative effects will prove as destructive to our way of life as any explosive device. Well okay, don’t trust me – just keep an eye on my nose.