What I learned on Oprah

So, since I was home with Ben, I had the chance to catch up on a little Oprah. I probably shouldn't have, because now I am walking around with a terrorist bird flu cloud over my head. Here is what I learned from the "experts" on Oprah's pretty new blue 20th anniversary set:

The terrorists are smart enough to build a nuclear bomb....
... they just don't have the ability to get the materials to build that bomb.

The majority of the current 20 something Arab generation rejects terrorism...
...and if you believe that statement you are scratchng your head as to how Hamas won the Palestinian election...
... and we don't need to be worried about the 20 somethings... we need to be worried about the 5-10 yr olds who are being trained now to sacrifice themselves in 10-15 years with no fear.

Americans want answers now... we live in 1 yr intervals and election cycles... nothing matters what happened last year, who knows what is going to happen next year so why bother....
... the terrorists live in generational intervals... they can wait for 10-20-60-100 years.... they have been fighting for hundreds of years....

A world wide pandemic is going to happen because we are now a global community.

They do not know if it is going to be the bird flu, but they know that something is going to happen...
... they suspect the bird flu because it is following a similar trend as the 1918 flu that killed so many.

Currently they bird flu only passes from animal to human...
... what they are worried about is when it mutates to pass from human to human and that has not happened yet.

Worldwide, AIDS has killed approximately 30 million people in 24 years
.... a bird flu will kill 100 million in 6-8 months.

It is currently impossible to produce enough medicine and vaccine for the world, because most medicines come from 2 factories and both are overseas.

The people that will be most affected by this virus are from 20-40 yrs of age, not the young and the fraile...
... this virus affects every major system from the brain to the respiratory to the gastrointestinal and causes the immune system to go into over drive. You don't actually die from the virus, your immune system kills you because it is so overwhelmed that it starts killing every cell in your body.

I do not believe in running around like chicken little, but I do believe the Earth has a way of cleansing itself, and I do think that we must accept this fact as an even trade for the way that we treat her.

I can also say that I believe in an afterlife. I have always had the belief that I would rather be in the epicenter of the bomb than on the out skirts and rebuild. I do not fear death, I am incredibly saddened at the thought of some one dying and continuing on my journey without their presence.

I did not take the above information and feel the need to panic and buy masks and stock up on Tamiflu, but I do feel the need to make sure that I can comfort and protect those around me if a crisis does happen. I think that if you have very been faced with a natural or man made disaster (hurricane or 9-11) you realize, your stock portfolio means nothing when you don't have clean water.

I think we must face the idea of crisis and disaster, not to panic, but to start running the dialogue in or head as to what we would do, how to keep a cool head, how not to get wrapped up in the media of it all.....