Article February 14, 2005 Issue

CAN WE EVER BE SAFE?

Richard Bergenheim

It's hard to imagine worse timing . As I walk from one subway line in New York to another, I can't escape the enormous ads for an upcoming disaster movie lining the station walls. Millions of dollars have been spent to create a spark of fear and buzz for this new blockbuster. But recently we've been surrounded by the real thing.

Reports from Indonesia, and other countries in the tsunami zone, have continued to include heartrending pictures of destruction and human suffering. And for me, the ads are just in bad taste—victims themselves of current events. Not only is the timing obviously wrong, but the ads are striking a raw nerve. They pointedly ask, Are we ever really safe? The ads are surely designed to create a state of anxiety.

Today, that question cuts too close to the bone. And it demands an answer that a Hollywood production cannot provide. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking about a radio segment I've just heard that included interviews with Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish religious leaders who were asked, How can God permit such disasters?