Well, my mom said something I think was an intelligent assessment. What can we really do to prepare anyhow? If, e.g., someone's planning to fly a plane into a building I'm going to, how can I stop them? How can I 'prepare' for that? I can't go around hauling a parachute with me every time I'm going to a more than one story building!
There is no point in "preparing" for terrorist attacks. Even if, say, you have those supplies to deal with an attack, what if you don't have them with you at work, when the attack comes? What if you can't get to them? Come on. The only reason the government's doing this is to cover their own behinds in case a terrorist attack happens...then they can sigh and shake their heads and claim, "Well, we WARNED you..."