Health & Fitness
Balancing Real and Perceived Risk
After any incident where children are harmed, or even if there is a perception where they could be harmed, many of us seem to go overboard to "protect out children". How do we balance actual risk with perceived risk? What actions actually help vs merely make us feel better?
Some national events, like school shootings at Newtown or Columbine, grab our attention, and our hearts. Then there are local events, like a convicted sex offender moving into town. Less drastic, but also causing modest concern in some, are potential "threats" like a state-regulated marijuana dispensary.
Why are we in the suburbs not more concerned with things that are can also affect us or our children, perhaps even more than with the headline-grabbing issues?
- abuse by a family member or family friend
- traffic accident, because of speed, lack of curbs, or cell phone use
- accidental shooting by a licensed gun
- violent, non-sex offenders
- bullying by peers
- a parent suffering from substance abuse
- domestic issues with non-custodial parents
Of course this is a national issue too, beyond concerns for children. I've had Homeland Security (or at least someone in uniform) go through my backpack at a T station. But in this case I did not feel any safer, feeling it was all for show.
Both feeling safe and actually being safe (or at least safer) are important. But, both nationally and locally, we're paying too much attention to perceptions and feel-good safety measures, and the media is not doing its job in this respect. Our time and resources would be far more wisely spent on actual threats, or at least more-likely threats. Like it or not, risk pervades our lives. We should do our homework so we know where we should really be concerned - and where we should not.