Coping with fear

Seven weeks into "America's new war," the irony is unmistakable. Coming from half a world away, from the beige streets of a country most Americans have never seen, the TV images are almost familiar - grainy pictures of bombs falling in brilliant paroxysms of light, secret bunkers, midnight raids.

Yet strangely, the unfamiliar terrain in this conflict for many Americans is the ground beneath their feet. For the first time in at least a half century, America is a nation beset by deep and unyielding uncertainty - even fear - about its security.

Businessmen who once pined for the penthouse corner office are now buying parachutes designed for anxious executives. People who spent little time pondering life's meaning have found themselves turning more to prayer. Some have even brought the war effort home, stocking up on rubber gloves and gas masks.

From such responses emerge a collective portrait of the new America - a country aware that much has changed since Sept. 11, yet still struggling to redefine what it means to be safe in this altered world. As the US approaches a security situation more like that of European nations - with greater surveillance and more checkpoints - some observers suggest that America is perhaps less prepared to deal with such a new reality.

Whether it's Pearl Harbor or the Oklahoma City bombing, Americans have long responded to domestic attacks with decisive action. Now, with bioterrorist attacks mounting and little indication that the government can stop them, these persistent fears are subtly changing how the nation sees itself.

"The nature of the nation is to be doers. We want to be able to take care of something and move on," says Patricia Erickson, a sociologist at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. "All this is changing us."

From 80-point headlines and 24-hour news channels, one might think that the events of the past month and a half have turned the nation into a tribe of gas-mask recluses, sipping bottled water through sterilized straws, and opening the mail only if it's a certified letter from Aunt Beth. The reality, of course, is much more complicated.

For every person who has prepared for an apocalypse, dozens of others have done essentially nothing at all. Indeed, the way Americans are coping with their fears is neither black nor white, but millions of thoughts and actions in shades of gray, each offering a modicum of comfort in an unsettling time.

"We held a series of discussions about parishioners' feelings a few weeks ago, just to talk to them about how they were coping with it all, and people were in very different places," says the Rev. Karla Woggon, rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in College Park, Md. "Some were just angry. Some were fearful, but what type of fear they felt varied."

Everyone is looking for a palliative, whether over-the-counter or over the top, to deal with it:

• Bible sales are up 20 to 40 percent, according to the leading publisher of the Bible worldwide. That is compared with a 10 percent increase during the Gulf War.

"People need something certain, something to rely on, and that's what the Bible is," says Cris Doornbos, executive vice president of sales at Zondervan.

• Pharmacies across the country saw a 16 percent increase in new prescriptions for antidepressants during the last two weeks of September.

• Surplus Center, an Army/Navy store in Berkeley, Calif., has sold more than 250 gas masks since the terrorist attacks.

Survivalist purchases, once the province of fringe groups, have become, if not mainstream, then at least more common in the past month. A Time/CNN poll showed that 31 percent of Americans have bought or are considering buying extra bottled water in case of a terrorist attack and 17 percent are considering buying a gas mask.

Some of those items are largely impractical. For example, one would need to be carrying or wearing a gas mask constantly for it to make a difference.

But in a country that has little experience in coping with the constant worries that sometimes attend the nebulous threat of terrorism, the rush to buy survivalist gear isn't necessarily surprising.

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