Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Fear in America

I had a comment on one of my recent blogs, and as I read through it, I had to tell myself, this guy has it going on. 

We are a nation that thrives on fear.  If we are not afraid of something, we are not happy.  This has been going on for as long as I can remember, and I am getting damn old.

I remember having the "nuclear war" drills.  Everyone get under your desk, and cover your heads.  I remember laughing even then, thinking, "and this is going to save me from being blown to smithereens, how???"  We were afraid of the communists then, and guess what, we are still afraid of the communist. 

We are now afraid of terrorist.  We are afraid they are going to disrupt our lives, and so far, for one bleak day in September of 2001, they did.  But let's look at what a terrorist is really trying to do.  They are trying to instill fear, to make us change our lives, and boy did they do it.  I think the more appropriate response on 9/11 would have been for every person to go to the airport, and get on a plane, and go somewhere.  Show everyone, that no matter what you do, we are not afraid of you.  But, wait, that is not what real Americans do.  We run and hide.

And, as I look at my other posts, there is a fear of something in every one of them.  We are afraid of the gays, so we ban gay marriage.  We are afraid of sex offenders, so we have a list we can put them all on.  It doesn't matter that the things we do have no effect on what we are trying to protect ourselves from, we still have to try.

So my advice to you, Mr or Mrs America, is quit wetting your pants, and stand strong.  You don't need to be afraid.  Or at least, that's as I see it.

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