An article in the Aug. 9 issue of Parade magazine discussed a way of life many commuters know all too well: mass transit as a terror target.
I must admit that I think about the July 2005 London bombings or the Madrid subway bombing the year before each time that I board a metro train or a transit bus, usually in cities where I’m traveling (since I live in Los Angeles – enough said). It’s not a paranoid fear that grips me but a realization that one never knows when his or her time is up.
The same feeling comes over me when flying and my plane approaches the skyscrapers of a downtown city.
But life goes on, and while in this day and age one must remain vigilant, the actions of a radical few, whether homegrown or not, cannot be allowed to take society hostage. The magazine article I read over the weekend serves as a reminder that, while we have yet to see a serious terrorist attack using mass transit, we must live knowing that one could happen at any moment. And despite the fact that the article did not mention school buses, we must realize that metro trains and public buses provide some 1.5 billion student rides a year
