I have never been able to understand why it is that people, especially those in the West, feel that they have some sort of "right" to a risk-free life.

Yes, you should be able to live free from from risk, free from fear. But not in this world -- never was and never will be as long as people are people.

This in no way means that we have to give in and go armed, or anything of the sort. It only means that we should accept what is and stop worrying about it, and do our damnedest to change it for the better.

When I was born there had been no deliberate fission explosion anywhere on the globe. I've lived under the shadown of The Bomb (and so have all of you). Now we live under the shadow of some sort of Terror attack, a relatively new idea for those in the US -- but other countries have done so for quite some time.

I could be hit by a car -- I grew up with this threat, and learnt to cope with it. I could slip on the stairs, again, I've learnt to do my best to avoid this. Nowadays I could be involved in a terror attack -- okay, I have to learn to cope with it, and packing a gun (for instance) won't do a thing to help me survive a cloud of VX or Sarin.

My ancestors and yours faced other threats, from being ridden down by the local baron to death by plague to being lunch.

Like greatness, some risks we achieve and some we have thrust upon us.   
But we can't just sit around and lament the loss of the risk-free life we never had.

freda was doing something when she was placed under house arrest, and I respect her for that. Risks were involved and she accepted them. But whether you know the risks or not, you can't opt out of them. You can even die just laying in bed. Me, I'd rather go out doing something. Your mileage may vary.