Keller @ Large: Can We Overcome Culture Of Fear?

BOSTON (CBS) - I was chatting with a friend of mine Tuesday about the bad old days of the early 1960's when fear of nuclear war prompted people to build bomb shelters in their basements, and schools taught their students how to duck and cover.

"People today don't know what living with that kind of fear was like," he said.

Actually, yes, they do.

Consider the fiasco that unfolded in New York's Kennedy Airport Sunday night after a group of people watching the Olympics on TV started loudly cheering Usain Bolt's victory in the 100-meter dash. To some, the celebration sounded like gunshots. Passengers started running. They knocked over some metal barriers, which also sounded like gunfire. Next thing you know, full scale panic engulfed the airport, and around the country, I'm sure countless people hearing the initial, false reports of gunfire thought -- uh-oh, here we go again with terrorism.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that this happened.

Since our complacency was destroyed on 9/11, we've seen panic manifested in a number of ways - security overkill, public funds wasted needlessly on military hardware, irrational, exaggerated fear of Muslims and immigrants.

Last fall, as reports of the exodus from Syria were dominating the news, a local radio talk-show host told his listeners that the National Guard had escorted a busload of Syrian immigrants into a hotel in Leominster, of all places. Panicky listeners were calling in to express their horror. We checked with the police, who said the whole story was a prank.

There's a lesson here for all of us, about the fog of war, and the cost of uncontrolled fear. Just ask the folks at Kennedy Airport what that feels like.