Don't panic!

hese are troubled times. All times are.

People, depending on their outlooks, have a variety of concerns.

Terrorism. Will a nuclear weapon be used on us? Healthcare. How can I afford coverage, when costs keep going up? What will happen to me when I get sick? Home ownership. I can't afford my mortgage anymore. I am going to lose my home. What will happen to me? Illegal immigrants. People are streaming across the border illegally. They are taking jobs; some are committing crimes. What will happen to our country if we don't control our borders? War. What will happen to Iraq? What about our soldiers? When will they come home? Global warming. Will we destroy the environment? Will rising waters force the evacuation of coastal cities worldwide?

And so on.

These (or at least some of them) are big problems. But they are not the biggest problems the country has ever faced. I would suggest that the 50,000 nuclear warheads the Soviet Union had, at one time, pointed as us, was a bigger threat than terrorism today. I believe that the war in Iraq, as significant and difficult as it is, is not of the scale or severity of the Civil War or World War II. Our southern border, which is porous today, has been equally unprotected for most of our nation's history. Our economic difficulties are a challenge...but not nearly as bad as the depression of the 1930s.

Of course, if the person suffering is YOU or someone close to you, it is a critical problem. As they say, if your neighbor lost his job, that's a recession. When you lose your job, that's a depression.

Conclusion: There IS plenty to be concerned about and there are many things to be done. Let's do them. Worrying adds nothing. And earlier eras have survived equally bad—and often worse—challenges.