Nervous Nation Must Decode a Confusing Rainbow of Colors

[LiberalHeart]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's yellow on America's streets, orange in New York City, and red in the skies, but only for travelers on planes from Britain. When it comes to terrorism threats, the nation is painted in a confusing rainbow of colors.

Despite criticism that the color-coded threat alert system adopted in 2002 lacks meaningful information, it remains the measure by which Americans are supposed to judge how much danger they face. Red is the worst-case scenario, warning of a severe risk of terrorist attacks. So why are U.S.-bound planes allowed to fly from London under a red advisory?

Quite a bit more here:
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=5272880

[tanyev]

1. Ironic that the rainbow in the Bible story is God's promise that he

would not destroy the earth. That's even in the Old Testament, the fundies' favorite part of the Bible. I guess they would point out that God's promise specifically referred to destroying the world with another flood. That still leaves a whole host of destructive possibilities.

[Jamastiene]

4. Bingo.

Believe it or not, that is what my mental doctor told me when I told her I was gay. She started in with the Old Testament and I pointed out that God made that promise and she said exactly what you just said you guess they would say. You got it. She said God would destroy gay people with the weather.

[tanyev]

5. Yikes! I hope you found a new doctor ASAP.

She sounds mental.

:hug:

[Jamastiene]

6. No, these people, believe it or not, were my last resort here.

That last psychologist before her told me to "get right with God" when she found out. I still think 90% of my mental problems are that I am gay in an area where there aren't many other gay people. And the gay people who do exist here are racist. I can't deal with that.

Luckily, the therapist she referred me to, inside the same organization, never said anything about homosexuality at all. She was the least judgemental person I have ever met here in this area. I got along with her very well. She really helped me a lot.

So, in the end, it worked out to my benefit to ignore the one with the higher degree (who made that comment) who could send a note to the school on my behalf so that I could get cut a little slack when I'm in my high anxiety state. The therapist with the lower level degree was the nonjudgemental one I actually ended up working with. It seems like I finally figured out a way to work around the prejudice of one snooty one to get to a good one. I lucked up, big time.

[tanyev]

8. Was the one who told you to get right with God a certified psychologist?

Seems like there would be a professional organization you could and should report them to. That's inexcusable.

[Jamastiene]

9. Here in Richmond County,

The person higher up on the list that I would report someone to would be just the same. Most of them are that way here. She did my intake assessment at the local Richmond County Mental Health about 8 years ago. I have no idea what her official credentials were, but she sure said it. Many of them have said things like that and worse to me over the years. One even told me I was "choosing a lifestyle that would lead to nothing but pain because I was cut off from the love of God" and this was a local suicide hotline run by the local Richmond County Mental Health clinic.

These people are like that. That is why it took me so long to finally get the help I needed. Every time I'd reach out for help, I'd get more of the same, so I'd cringe back into a ball of nerves and fear. Out of 23 therapists and other mental health professionals I tried, I found 2 who were good. One died while walking her dogs, so I had to wait a few years until I could find another good one. The last one acutally helped me. Finally.

[Lindacooks]

10. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Those people are WRONG.

And I think the other poster was saying report them to the AMA or another organization - go really high up to get away from the local idiots.

I hope you're better now. And know that many people accept you just as you are, and that the people who tried to shame you are sick.

[Jamastiene]

14. Thank you.

If it happens to me again, I may just send a letter to the APA or somewhere like that. I honesly didn't think of doing that at the time. Maybe I could explain to them that the problem down here is systemic and not an isolated incident.

Unless you explain your position thoroughly, you often don't get results. I have learned that much when fighting my local community college over graduation dress codes. They had different dress codes for women and men. They said women had to wear dresses only. I ended up getting the local ACLU in NC involved and the school backed down. Later, during rehearsals for graduation, the Vice President of the school announced that the dress codes now allowed women to wear business type pant suits instead of dresses only and the women in the audience applauded a long time. I was so pleased at the support after the fact. No one even knew I fought that battle at the school. It felt good to see positive change though.

I am doing better now. I handle things differently now than I used to.

[leesa]

2. No one pays the slightest bit of attention to them. The only thing you

will hear is the bitching from the city, county and state when they have to keep shelling out bucks to keep staff on alert for no reason.

[MrCoffee]

3. "Somewhere over the rainbow"

Welcome to Oz, may I take your coat? Pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain with the voting machines.


More like Wonderland, actually.

[Lars39]

7. I always knew that Elmo dude would be bad news.

[Rose Siding]

11. Pathetic, ridiculous facade of "security"

"a nervous nation"? Shame.

[Supersedeas]

15. will they ban beverages on city buses and trains???

[praeclarus]

12. was orange at SJC today.

I dropped off my mother. She asked what is orange alert
as there are signs everywhere saying just that.

Damned if I knew the answer to that. I was going to
tell her is was more than color x and less than color
y but I couldn't even remember the other colors. :)

So I told her about the explosive gatorade and to be
prepared to stand in a long line and lose whatever
liquid/gel shtuff she might be carrying.

[IntiRaymi]

13. I wonder what the gay communities feel about this.

Rainbow flags everywhere!