Yesterday as I dashed outta my classroom to catch a slow train home, I grabbed a Hardy Boys kids book from the bin on table 4. I figured some brain candy should make the ride home more tolerable, and nothing in the Hardy Boys would so engross my thoughts that I'd miss an approaching scumbag. So I start reading through this 1987 release titled "Dead on Target." Let me say the Hardy Boys have grown up.
Within the first three pages of the book, a bomb has exploded in a mall parking lot, and a teen is killed. The book continues to unfold a story about how Frank and Joe Hardy foil the plot of a international terrorist organization. The more I read, the more I had to read. I read the whole book before I got home.
About halfway through the book, I started getting goosebumps and a strong sense of deja vu. This terrorist group had plans to strike at several major U.S. cities, and there were airplanes involved. Creepily, the author detailed the arrival of two terrorists onto a plane, where they both took seats at the very front near the cockpit doors. Later, as a hand grenade rolls about the deck (sent flying by a Hardy kick), one of the terrorists has the stewardess on her knees with a blade at her throat.
Thankfully -- in this story -- we had Frank and Joe Hardy to prevent a near disaster in the homeland. After reading this thing, I'm dumbfounded. If a kids' fiction writer could foresee this kind of thing, what gives with the government of this place?
I clearly remember where I was when the news started pouring in on September 11. My sister was in D.C., visiting about 2 miles from the Pentagon. And, she was supposed to be on a plane outta D.C. that morning. To say that event changed my life here forever would be an understatement.
What I find extremely unsettling is that humans these days are becoming numb to these events. Our naive sense of safety can never return to former days, but we are slipping. People travel through their existence without a thought beyond their own front door. I know I tend toward paranoia but it serves me well. I mean, just because you think people are out to get you doesn't mean they're not. Don't you wonder what's next? And will our government be able to rise to it? Where are Frank and Joe when you need 'em?
Dixon, Franklin W., 1987. Hardy Boys 1 Casefiles: Dead on Target. Archway, New York, N.Y. ISBN: 0-671-62558-6
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