Fears, media hype, reality aren’t always in agreement

Wait, what are we afraid of again?

Because it keeps changing, like fashion trends or the latest smartphones.

It’s not like all the things we fear are always fixed or vanquished. Mostly, we stop worrying about them because we get bored, frustrated or distracted by something else.

Remember being afraid of freaks putting needles in candy and razor blades in apples? Hospitals used to offer to X-ray kids’ Halloween loot. Now we’re more terrified of high-fructose corn syrup and nonorganic apples.

In the ’80s, dads warned their daughters not to pull over for flashing blue lights. Hawaii was terrified by stories of bad guys pretending to be cops and tricking women into becoming victims. Drive to the nearest police station, daddy would say. Don’t you stop on the side of a dark road, no matter what.

Another throwback concern: coffee stunting kids’ growth. Now eighth-graders come to school clutching their Starbucks, and we worry about kids maturing too fast because of hormones in the milk.

Remember when we were terrified of mold? In the summer of 2002, a Waikiki hotel had to shut down one tower when mold was found in the rooms, and panic ensued. The state Department of Health was bombarded by calls from residents worried about mold in their homes — mold that had never bothered them before. Now? Do you think anything is growing on your walls after all this humid weather? More to the point, do you care?

There was about a three-week span in 2001 when reporters could listen to police scanners in the newsroom and be very entertained by the panic over anthrax. Every envelope with the tiniest bit of dust sent Auntie running to call 911 because somehow, sweet senior citizens in Honolulu retirement homes believed they were targeted by terrorists.

Are we still afraid of youth gangs? There was a time you wouldn’t dare sport a bandanna out of the house lest you be shot by the Bloods or the Crips. Now people tie red bandanas around their beagle’s neck as a dog park fashion statement, and we worry instead about kids making friends.

Here’s a big one: crystal meth. A decade ago “ice” was all we talked about. All those legislative hearings, PSAs and poster contests. Pretty sure that didn’t get solved. We just got numb to the problem.

Another huge one: AIDS. There was a time when the disease loomed over our collective psyche like the threat of the apocalypse. Now we don’t even flinch with the mention of the word, and truly, the word is not mentioned often. HIV/AIDS has not been cured, but it doesn’t kill as often or as awfully, and we’re OK with that. We shouldn’t be but we are.

The connection between fear and reality is tenuous and influenced by attention. The easy thing is to blame the media. The hard thing is to stay focused on the truly harmful things until they’re gone.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.