It was all a hoax. The note left on the computer at M.D. Anderson Library yesterday, proclaiming the presence of a bomb within the library, was not a genuine threat. It was only someone's sick idea of a joke.
It's a good thing, too, because if the bomb threatened on that note had been a reality, computers, books and body parts could have been strewn for hundreds of yards, and someone at the police or fire departments would have had a lot of explaining to do.
Why? Because library officials, acting on the best advice of University of Houston police, Houston police and Houston firefighters, decided not to alert people in the building a bomb threat had been made.
We understand most bomb threats are made in vain. We also understand the importance of preventing a panic. No one wants to see a mass of students thrashing about through the library doors, as if caught in a manic mosh pit while wearing corsets filled with fire ants.
What we don't understand is how the mentality of "Aw, it's probably just a joke" or the fear that people will be worried unnecessarily can supercede the fear of what could happen if there really is a bomb in the building.
Safety courses teach people to always assume a potential assailant is armed. Businesses instruct employees on the retail level not to resist a criminal attempt at robbery, even if a weapon is not evident. Why, then, are our designated protectors telling us it is OK for officials to assume a bomb threat poses no danger? Why take chances with that many lives at stake?
A policy of getting people out when a bomb threat has been made is like a condom: It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
"Better safe than sorry" is a cliche, but most cliches get to be cliches by having enough of a grain of truth in them that they become common sense.