The Department of Homeland Security’s full-page newspaper ad shows a picture of the American flag and beneath it the words: “You’ve flown the flag. Now what?”

It’s one of the most important questions that can be posed in our new age of terrorism, of course, and one that we’ve been anxiously wrestling with ever since the attacks of 9-11. And after all this time, we still aren’t any closer to an answer.

As outlined in the ad, the “three steps toward readiness” not only are simple and inexpensive, but “they work.” We’re advised to make a family emergency kit. Take a plastic trash can and fill it with 72 hours’ worth of supplies: a gallon of water per person per day, a three-day supply of nonperishable food, a first-aid kit, toiletries, a battery-powered radio, flashlight, extra batteries. And don’t forget the plastic sheeting and duct tape to keep the toxins from seeping in through the windows. We are urged to make a family communication plan so we can know where to run and what to do if terrorists strike and to stay alert and informed as an attack unfolds.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s precisely the same emergency-preparedness formula our government has been feeding us since the establishment of Homeland Security a little more than a year ago and the arrival of the color-coded terror-alert system. For all its good intentions, however, it’s a feel-good formula that most of us have yet to follow – and perhaps never will, sensing as we do that it can’t make us truly safer in the end.

The unfortunate reality is that none of us can know how to reconcile this troubling dichotomy that comes with living under so shadowy a threat as terrorism. It has been more than 21/2 years since the Twin Towers crumbled and we still don’t understand how it’s possible to live on high alert while going about our business as usual.

To make matters worse, we now learn that our government has yet to figure out who is supposed to be in charge of sounding the terrorism alarm. According to The Wall Street Journal this week, hours before Attorney General John Ashcroft said “credible intelligence from multiple sources” indicated that al-Qaida is planning an attack in the United States in the next few months, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge showed up on TV to say he didn’t believe the information was worrisome enough to even raise the alert level from yellow to orange.

The interagency turf war has caused concern among some in Congress who fear that the lack of consensus could damage the credibility of the alert system and the government’s effort to keep people vigilant. Perhaps the damage has already been done. No sooner had the latest threat information been made public than some Democrats suggested that the administration was needlessly scaring people as a way to distract the country from the problems in Iraq.

“I think there’s a building skepticism about warnings from the Bush administration,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.

The war against terror was hard enough when we were a nation unified in our grief, our resolve and our cause. Now that we’re a nation divided over Iraq, questioning one another’s loyalties, goals and patriotism, the fight has become a whole lot tougher and less certain every day.

And that’s one rift that all the duct tape in the world cannot mend.