I work in midtown Manhattan. Each and every day I see:

- Radiation detection equipment (fixed and mobile)
- Biohazard detectors
- Armed soldiers on patrol with leg-mounted gas mask bags
- HEAVILY armed cops on patrol (way more armament than the soldiers)
- Scores of emergency apparatus
- Metal detectors
- Bomb-sniffing dogs
- Reinforced glass windows (for bomb protection)
- Tens of thousands of cameras
- Millions of people

I have been here for the first WTC bombing, blackouts, steam explosions, bomb scares, plane crashes, riots and transit strikes. I managed to skip 9/11, fortunately. The bulls-eye of "worst case scenarios" is centered on my head.

And I too ponder why, exactly, near my home, which is 74 miles from the place I work, in place with limited cell phone service, where I can hunt in my back yard and we have no municipal water or sewer, no sidewalks, no streetlights, no police department, few large structures, no critical infrastructure, why do so many of my neighbors think that WE live in a "target" zone? Clearly they have no idea what "risk assessment" is.