view what happens in the world
through the prism of the travel business, but right now it's
difficult to stay focused on anything but the events in Iraq.
Although the war is taking its toll on many industry sectors, it
seems self-serving to talk about how business is suffering when so
many people are living on the edge of life.
Whether you are pro-war, anti-war or, like many, unable to
decide how you feel, the battlefield images flashing across our
television screens are riveting and frightening. This is the first
war that is being fought so vividly in our living rooms.
As if the 24-hour reporting weren't enough to unsettle us, my
teenage daughter's high school principal sent home a note the other
day explaining plans for emergency evacuation of the building. He
attached a form for us to sign authorizing the school to dismiss
students even if parents weren't immediately available to come for
them. The principal also wrote that the teachers were trying to
help the students understand the realities of what is taking
place.
My daughter says she hears so much about the war during the day
that she doesn't want to watch it on television in the evening. One
night she needed reassurance that she wasn't going to be killed
"even before I have the chance to go to college."
In the midst of this turmoil, life goes on. We send the kids to
school, shop in the markets, run errands, go to the movies and,
yes, many of us still take vacations and business trips.
With all the flap about the French position on the war, we even
continue to go to France. I read that a bicycle-tour operator
selling France was having a banner year.
The folks who want to ride their bikes in France will not be put
off by politics.
And then there are the destinations that seem so far removed
from conflict that they take on heightened appeal. The islands of
the Caribbean fit that description. With enough time and money,
some might wait out the war in an idyllic spot in that part of the
world or somewhere else that seems far from danger.
I grew up during World War II, but it was a different kind of
war. Our military went overseas to Europe and the Pacific, and we
had air-raid drills to prepare for possible attacks on the U.S.
mainland, but they never came. Terrorism wasn't a word we knew, and
there was no fear of random acts of violence.
We had no television sets until years after the war ended. We
got our news on the radio and in newspapers, and the battles seemed
further removed from our everyday lives.
Now we watch the battles and worry not just about the war over
there but the threat around the corner, and we pray it all will
end.