When I feel hung up in the mess that is civilization, I like to take a late night walk. The other day I was visiting my parents, who live about two miles outside of Ames. I took a short walk around 11:30 p.m.; it was a very dark night due to a thick cloud cover obscuring the moon. While I walked, I thought about all of the complicated things in life that seem more relevant than ever — peace, war and death.

I felt many things on that stroll in the dark, but above all I felt safe and secluded. I couldn’t imagine any threat to the peace I felt that night. I was so far away from everyone; no one would dare disturb the quiet of that sanctuary.

That seems to be the nature of the American perspective, especially for those of us in the Midwest. It’s easy to feel isolated from the world when we’re planted in the middle of a continent, halfway around the world from danger. The distance is wide because of vast oceans that separate us, but it is widened further by our long existence as a country and our human tendency to consider ourselves invincible. Like most humans, we find it hard to imagine death, and even harder to imagine the world continuing on without us.

What most of us have only recently realized is that there are hundreds, likely thousands, of men who are looking to destroy us with every breath we take. The peace that we find in our everyday activities is under attack, and it would take little more than a sinister suitcase to destroy it all.

The question then becomes how far are we willing to go to combat the enemies of our country? Under what conditions should we start a war, and under what conditions should we fight a war? With what intensity should we retaliate when our civilians are killed? How many lives can be given to fight a war for the purpose of sparing future bloodshed?

Only a small segment of the population has a philosophy or psychology degree, but we all must consider these questions. These issues are extremely pertinent in the new reality we find ourselves in today. The answers to these questions are important not only when voting for government officials, but they are important every day, because we are all constant targets of these mad people.

War is not as it used to be. Imagine the standing armies of the Revolutionary War. Lines of soldiers would stand facing an opposing line, and this form of combat was considered only fair and proper to many. And while atrocities regarding civilians did occur, our enemy felt it dishonorable to target women and children, keeping the focus on military targets.

In World War II, tens of millions of soldiers and civilians died in the Allied-Axis battles, demonstrating perhaps better than ever before the ill effects of war on innocent civilians, a truly evil empire led by perhaps the most vicious man ever engaged in the extermination of millions of innocent people. After seizing Germany, Allied forces were appalled at the cruelty that existed there. Americans no longer thought of war as battles involving merely soldiers; they now understood the effect evil men had on the innocent, as well as collateral damage caused by the righteous.

America is once again at war with terrible forces bent on destroying entire countries and peoples. This time, it is the United States which is the target. A new arsenal is now available. Guns and grenades kill many, but the energy contained in the atom can be unleashed upon millions. We understand this war, but do not truly consider the danger present every minute of every day.

The movie The Sum of All Fears gave us a small glimpse of the destruction that could befall our country. While we have experienced terror on our shores before, September 11 obviously brought a new outlook on our security. While we have a new outlook, I think most Americans consider a nuclear attack on this country ludicrous. The harsh reality is, however, that such an attack is possible, and the destruction and loss of life would make September 11 comparable to a house fire.

We can react to this threat in a variety of ways. We should avoid paranoia and debilitating fear, while coming to terms with how temporary and fragile life can be. We should continue to live as we did before the war on terror, but with a new realization that it could all end in a flash of light and energy, and we may be standing before God sooner than we may think.