Mass hysteria is powerful and frightening. It doesn’t matter that “nothing happened.” Something did happen — a large group of people caught terror from each other. It is terribly contagious. You had me ready to jump under my desk.

Seems to me that terror was the point of the JFK event, and you are so correct that no one got it except those who were there. Whole segments of our population live on the edge of terror. Our minds lurch and our stomachs jump when the emergency tone comes on the radio. “This is just a test.” But we are not prepared to deal with a real outbreak of terror. We are just primed for it all the time, so it only takes a rumor to infect an entire airport. Or a town convinced that its daycare centers are pits of child abuse. Or a population sure that there are “terrorists” lurking on every corner. Well named, terrorists. That’s what they breed.

Yes, responsible, in-depth journalism and other writing is missing, and necessary. Can it possibly become a vaccination against terror? I don’t know. Thanks for raising the question. Keep it coming.