Nina In New York: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

A lighthearted look at news, events, culture and everyday life in New York. The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
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By Nina Pajak

In the last week, a Dallas visitor who was diagnosed with Ebola (but not before the emergency room turned him away so that he might have the opportunity to infect at least a dozen others) has died, another American in Liberia somewhat mysteriously contracted the disease, and a nurse in Spain treating Ebola patients became the first person to get infected outside of West Africa. Oh, and she was symptomatic (read: contagious) for a week before getting quarantined.

So, I'm assuming this is the part of the post-apocalyptic movie that comes before the opening credits, in which the audience is shown a faded, static-riddled TV news segment in which a solemn reporter recounts the first few documented cases of a mysterious and terrifying disease. BUT SHE HAS NO IDEA WHAT'S COMING. Cut to black. Titles titles titles, fade in on a desolate wasteland in which nothing lives but a ragtag group of hardened survivalists determined to find a place to rebuild society. Maybe the virus also mutated and created a legion of savage, cannibalistic half-humans with whom our group must contend. They have seen so much, and they have so little. The streets they walk are filthy, laid to waste. They climb over rubble, sleep in burned out warehouses. The sky is a permanent shade of grey. Pan over to . . . the Empire State Building?! Oh my god, it's us. Wait, what does that newspaper blowing by say? June, 2016?!

Or maybe it's the same opening scene, but it instead leads into a story about how relatively normal, decent people can so easily devolve into unhinged, xenophobic vigilante groups who organize into mobs that stage violent coups at international airports in order to control borders. The government is powerless to stop these paranoid and heavily-armed gangs, and the country enters an unofficial military state led by the absolute dumbest of the dumb (and we can get pretty dumb). People yearn for the quick, painless, and respectful TSA security checks of years past. Travel slows to a stop. The UN is disbanded as many other nations follow suit. Global trade screeches to a halt, crimes against humanity go unchecked, polar ice caps melt to puddles, and eventually everyone winds up dead or huddled in resurrected bomb shelters, eating beans and rocking in the fetal position. It's basically still a zombie movie, but maybe worse.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not fear-mongering. Quite the contrary. My fear has done been mongered. And who can blame me, with garbage like this floating around? I mean, come on, CNN. Get it together. You're a mess, you're drunk. Go home. I'd like to think I'm better and smarter than the average sucker whose brains these networks suck, but I'll be honest: I'm not. They win. I'm freaked. And I'm not even sure which I'm terrified of more—the uncontrollable spread of a deadly and confounding disease, or the openly repugnant attitudes the threat has so easily teased out of our citizens and public figures.

Either way, it might be time to book my spot in the first moon colonizing mission. "Moving to Canada" may not going to cut it this time.

Nina Pajak is a writer living with her husband, daughter and dog in Queens. Connect with Nina on Twitter!