I have a number of relatives and close friends living and working in DC and its first-ring suburbs.
They don't share your relative's cowardice in the face of terrorist threats, and at least two of them have considerably more insight into the risks involved.
As for me, I will continue to work in midtown NYC every day and raise my kids 17 miles away from downtown NYC.
you can believe what you want. But what I know for fact is that the person I am referring to has far more knowledge than you or I or the general public will ever have, and is no way a coward having spent 25+ years in the military. Enough said at this end.