Change. Experience. Gender. As the economy sours and November 4 draws closer and closer, we wait with bated breath, eyes transfixed on the TV. Wall Street. Main Street. Bailout. Even the least media-savvy of us can’t escape the maelstrom of buzzwords flying around this political season. War. Environment. Abortion. Rising above the fray, however, is one particularly powerful, prevalent buzzword: Security.

In light of recent events, it makes total sense for us to be so concerned with this on a national level. Still, I was mildly surprised by how prominently security issues cropped up in this week’s issue. Whether it concerns our parking lots (see “Grand Theft Auto: Brick City”), or our computer networks (see “Put That In Your Pipe and Smoke It: How Hackers are Shutting Down Hash Functions”), security is a big deal.

As Americans, I feel like security is something that we frequently take for granted... until something goes wrong. While there are the lone few who worry about anything and everything, most of us don’t trouble ourselves — even when, perhaps, we should. For example, most of us didn’t give a thought to how regulated our market should (or should not) be until just recently. Now, everyone’s got an opinion. Would we be in this situation if there were more people actively concerning themselves with the security of our market? Likely not.

As college students, I think we’re especially susceptible to a false sense of security. We’re a fairly insulated community — many of us have barely ventured into downtown Rochester, for goodness sake. Even as we are inundated with news of global crises, most of us don’t really feel like it’s going to affect us. This is a big problem.

Now, I’m not saying that we there should be widespread panic over every little thing. But if we continue to take our security for granted, we’re going to keep running into trouble.

What do you think, RIT? Do you feel secure?

Laura Mandanas
Editor in Chief