There was this classic 1960 episode of Rod Serling's wonderful television series, "The Twilight Zone," called "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
You can catch it occasionally on reruns, but it is often used as a teaching tool as part of the "Cable in the Classroom" series.
By staying hidden, turning off lights, keeping cars from starting and a few other manipulations of everyday events, aliens get the residents of Maple Street to turn on each other, panic and throw their lives into chaos.
Ordinary people's suspicion, ignorance and perceived self-interest do the work for the aliens in their quest to conquer our world.
Today, there is another alien among us. It's called the H1N1 virus _ more popularly known as the swine flu.
We're not minimizing the dangers of H1N1. After all, people have died from the disease. But their numbers have been few, and with proper precautions, including a vaccine, there is no reason at all to panic.
Yet, we have heard of parents who kept their kids from trick or treating on Halloween for fear of exposure. In addition, the absence rate at local schools is rising.
This is mostly from parents keeping children with flu symptoms home, which is the prudent and wise thing to do. But there is anecdotal evidence that some healthy students are not attending classes for fear of catching the swine flu.
Things got a little ridiculous on Monday morning in New York City, according to The Business Insider's Lawrence Delevingne.
It seems a woman on the southbound D subway train didn't cover her mouth when coughing.
This struck another woman as rather rude, not to mention unhealthy. When this opinion was expressed, some loud unpleasantness ensued, resulting in the cougher spitting on the party of the second part.
This evoked a punch from the coughee, and when the cougher tried to exit the train when the doors opened, she was grabbed by the back of her hair and yanked to the floor.
Obviously, it is not only the flu season, it's the silly season.
We can't stress strongly enough how important it is to take proper precautions to keep from getting sick. Wash your hands, use disinfectants, get the vaccine when it's available, consult your health care professional and for goodness sake, stay home when you're ill.
But there is really no reason to panic or over-react to the challenge of H1N1.
Serling included these words of warning at the end of the "Monsters" episode.
"There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men."
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