Get Rid of Blue and Green

Just a quick note:

We are now at an Elevated threat level. Yellow. There must be a metaphor hiding here somewhere.

But that's not my point.

Growing up in Israel, I'm used to living in a constant state of Emergency. People in Israel have had that "elevated" state of emergency ever since the first war in 1948, and glancing quickly at the leaders of Israel, Palestine, and the US, Israelis will continue to live in a state of emergency for ever. This means a lot of things, mainly relating to the power of the government to invade people's lives in the name of security, but for me it's just a depressing way to live.

And that's what we have here now. We can all imagine the courage it would take to change the threat level from Elevated to Guarded (not to mention the Utopian Low), and we know that in the existing political system this courage cannot be found. Who will be the leader taking upon himself/herself the responsibility of stating publicly that Americans can take it easy for a while, saying there's a general, rather than a significant risk of terrorist attacks?

Why is that? Why is the lowest threat level we will know in our lifetime still placed somewhere in the middle? Why can't the government admit we are now at the lowest possible threat level?

It has nothing to do with the number or the capability of those who want to kill Americans, only with American political courage. Will we ever allow ourselves to live in a Guarded or Low threat levels? It's only up to us.