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On Tuesday, Oct. 23, four packages were left unattended on the counter of the UMaine Post Office. Doris Jackson, a post office employee, wary of recent events and the death of postal employees in Washington, D.C., notified Public Safety. Shortly after, the Bangor Bomb Squad was called in and the post office was closed down for two hours.
Threats of anthrax in post offices around the nation have many employees on alert. While the packages at the UMaine Post Office did not pose any threat, employees in Washington, D.C., New York and New Jersey have not been so lucky. Anthrax has already killed two postal employees in Washington, D.C., and affected many more.
During this time of national crisis, members of the UMaine community, as well as all people across the country, should be more careful in their everyday activities. Actions that would have been deemed innocuous before Sept. 11 can now cause alarm, disturbance and, in some cases, panic.
Take care in not adding drawings or other random messages to packages you may be mailing. Do not leave packages or letters unattended; by simply staying to make sure a postal employee sees you and knows you intend to mail a package and not cause harm, situations like Tuesday’s can be avoided.
Terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the person or persons responsible for the recent anthrax mailings, care less about the individual deaths they have inflicted than the mass hysteria their attacks create. The most positive thing the university community can do is be calm but careful. By demonstrating extra care in day to day actions, Americans can rise above the atmosphere of panic recent events have created.
Bangor Daily News