Nothing to Lose

I can think of a couple of terrorist activities that were thwarted by civilians. There's probably been more, but these two immediately come to mind. The first one was on 9-11 when the fourth plane went down in that field instead of where the terrorists were planning to crash it. From cell phone conversations, it is known that some of the passengers were planning to attack the hijackers, and they almost certainly did. Sure they all died, but they were going to die anyway, so they had nothing to lose. Then there was the Shoe Bomber, which was not long after that. A bunch of guys just piled on him and prevented him from igniting the explosives in his shoe. They couldn't have known that he had explosives in his shoe, but they must have thought something was amiss when they saw him trying to light his shoe on fire. Maybe that's what they mean when they tell us to look out for anything suspicious.

I wasn't aware that lots of adults are carrying backpacks now, but I remember that school children were carrying them when I drove school busses from 1994 till 2004. Of course that was unheard of in our day, and I always wondered what they needed them for. Some of the packs seemed to always be full of something, and others looked to be empty, but they carried them anyway. I don't think I ever saw any of them strapped on the back like they're supposed to be, the kids either slung one strap over one shoulder or carried them like a suitcase in one hand. You don't need a backpack to do that, all you need is a regular old fashioned gym bag.

I remember, once when I was subbing, that I let this kid off at his farm and a big old turkey came running up to meet the bus. As the kid was exiting the bus, he threw his backpack at the turkey and made a solid hit. The turkey ran away, apparently unharmed, and the kid calmly picked up his backpack and set out for the house. I must have said something to myself out loud because one of the other kids responded, "Don't worry, I know that turkey, and he had it coming."