The Only Thing We Have To Fear

I let my daughter get away with a great many things.

Chocolate bars for breakfast. Endless hours on her iPad. I don't ask her to dress herself or feed the cats or any of myriad things someone her age could be doing. I take her to school every day, kiss her on the head, tell her I love her, and head off to work.

With a sense of foreboding.

I try very hard not to fight with her, but inevitably, when I put my foot down, there are heated exchanges. I let them cool off, then I apologize profusely.

I do all this for one simple reason: I don't want her last thought of me to be a negative one.

Oh no, it's not that I have cancer, or I'm planning on running off an leaving my family.

No. It's much darker.

74 school shootings in the time since the Sandy Hook Massacre have left me with the foreboding feeling that one day, I will drop her off... and that will be it.

My parents never had this worry. Their parents never did. And so on. But I... I live with the thought, brought more prominently forward in my mind every day. The thought that my nation, the one I am so proud of, has gone so far off the rails that hundreds of thousands of people have access to military-grade weaponry and ammunition, and when the pressure of their torment reaches a fever pitch, they will wander into my daughter's school and kill her.

What does that say about us? What has our nation become that the almost daily reports of people wandering into schools and malls and military bases and shooting themselves and others does nothing to bring our collective blood to a boil? What does it say, that we throw up our hands and continue to let legislators backed by the fear-monger, gun-worshiping groups in this land run the show?

It says we are in trouble. Unless we DO SOMETHING. NOW.

Fear Factory

Fear is a great motivator. It will take the timid, the weak, the ignorant, and the faithless, and whip them into a frenzied mob, easily led by the mountebank willing to stoke them with the fire of inflamed rhetoric and subtle prevarication. It easier to point to the ills of the world and claim they emanate from a source other than the individual, to a person, or group, or government that is callous or unresponsive or traitorous. It is far easier to spread lies and deceit, than to sow seeds of compassion and compromise.

We live in a time where, given the situation in the world, the turmoil we see, and the information so readily available, that the fear mongers and hate baiters can take their messages of discontent and fury to a wider audience, an audience soaked and steeped in the ichor of marketing, which tells them what they should have, what they must do, and how they must not think about things, but "take our word for it." Generation after generation, as education continues to fail to teach the basic skills needed for critical reason and common sense, when parents have children merely because they are told "that's what society/god wants," and we are told we are not good Americans unless we mortgage ourselves to afford bigger houses, cars, and televisions, the idea that the words uttered by anyone should bear closer scrutiny is as foreign a concept as the idea of the tall sailing ship or the horse and buggy.

So, the fear merchants peddle their talking points in the common market, a new and insidious form of Town Crier, who, rather than seeking to inform, is trying to inflame. The crowds gather around their glowing boxes, bombarded by light that does not illuminate, does not educate, but does prevaricate. Facts, even where they are evident, are glossed over as inconvenient, or flawed, or "propaganda." Those who seek to warn the town of the approach of the wolves are merely "trying to scare us." There are no wolves we are told; only sheep with different haircuts. How can they harm us?

The wolves are not the sheep -- we, the Americans, are. Meekly, we accept, without reservations, the fiery oration of others as gospel, checking our curiosity at the door, placing our common sense in abeyance, chalking up any lingering doubts to random thought. We do not question, do not confront, do not interrogate those who seek to tell us how we should act and what we should do and what we should think. We accept that, somehow, their judgment is greater than ours, even though there is nothing upon which to base such a thought. We would be led, en masse, to the slaughter, none the wiser.

If we do nothing else, we must awaken, must set forth with hungry eyes and hungrier minds, to test the words of these purveyors of "truth." Truth in and of itself, is an ephemeral concept, subject to interpretation, but facts are in evidence, capable of rational analysis, and subject to scrutiny. We must ask ourselves the tough questions. Does the thing harm me? Are we as beset as they would make us out to be? Have we lost anything tangible in the way of rights? Where did they come by their information? How credible is it? Have they lied to us before?

Until we decide to loose the chains that fetter us to the unreal world of fear, hate, and ignorance, and soar up to the heights of human intellect, to think for ourselves, and challenge those who simply believe we have no choice but to believe them, we will be forced to muddle around in the dark, forever the sheep to be shorn by those who would buy the wool and burn it, rather than clothe all humanity in it. We can no longer afford to be complacent -- the future of us all depends on it.

Fear And Loathing In Mississippi

It should come as no shock, when Mississippi becomes a battleground over civil rights. The death of Medgar Evers, of three civil rights works, shot in the back, show the determination of some to halt the course of freedom for all Americans. That the battle over black/white segregation was lost has not deterred some from diverting their energies into trying to enforce gay/straight segregation.

Fulton, Mississippi has now become a new battleground, which may not take on the stature of the events of Freedom Summer, but most certainly will have far-reaching implications, as a public school attempts to banish the "taint" of homosexuality in its halls by cancelling the prom, rather than allow a homosexual couple to attend.

Given the current climate in America, this should come as no surprise. Right-wing pundits harp on the talking points having to do with how the government is stripping Americans of their freedom and liberty, even as elements of American society seek to actually do this to those who have created no offense other than to be "different." These elements do not come right out and say the words, but their actions expose their bigotry in its totality. They know that to state their hatred of homosexuals would lead to their excoriation, but they are naive enough to think that merely taking such an action as cancelling a prom could not possibly arouse a nation.

For which they are fools.

Racism, sexism, ageism, bigotry... no matter what flag they are wrapped in or cloak that envelopes them, they are as plain as clouds in a clear blue sky, as obvious as the full Moon, and as poisonous as the worst snake or spider. These poxes on the body politic are unwanted reminders of the illness that still flows through our country's bloodstream; no amount of marching, rallying, protesting, or legislating has seen fit to expunge them from our society. Their odious, cancerous existence is mute testimony to the fact that not everyone can see reason or be enlightened.

And so, school administrators in Fulton, awash in the bitter swill that is local bigotry and ignorance, are punishing all the students in the high school, rather than take the chance that two rather harmless young ladies might attend together, simply because they prefer the company of their own gender to that of the opposite gender. In a way, this is the most important civics lesson these high school students can learn, for they can see the tyranny of stale ideas and dogma first-hand, unadulterated, constituted in the very adults they have been told to respect, people no doubt held up as pillars of their community. They were not here in the 60's, to see Mississippi burn, but now the drama can play out before them with new actors, in new ways, that might amplify the history of their state.

That it would take an outside agency -- either the courts, or perhaps a benefactor -- to put on a prom that all these children could attend is incomprehensible, though not as much as the mere fact that such a parochial attitude clings to life in the 21st Century. Are we so reticent, so set in our ways, so glacial in our thinking, that we the people, Americans, lovers of individual freedom and liberty, are going to stand for the continued existence of such things? Are we so removed from the shot and smoke of the Revolution, that we have forgotten that our fore-bearers died to give all Americans the chance to pursue life, liberty, and happiness?

In the end it will not be the government, but we the citizens, who shall decide this issue. If we do not care for intolerance and blind hatred and unwarranted fear, then we must stand up and say we will no longer tolerate these things. If we are truly to be a freedom-loving people, then we must free ourselves completely from our own self-imposed oppression, for silence only allows those who seek to restrain liberty more rope.

Fear Factor

It has come to pass, that since the horrible events of September 11th, 2001, we have lived in fear so long, that it has overwhelmed our better judgment. It does not help that some in Congress have become so reflexively afraid of anything that smacks of progress or change, that their impulse is to run to their constituents and the American public and scream at the top of their lungs about how the country is being sold into slavery, how freedoms are being trampled, and how it is all the fault of liberals.

Consider the vitriol that has been used in the health care debate, from "death panels," to "baby killing." It is far easier, apparently, to pander to the fears of the many, than to look out for their best interests. The common good appears to come with its own bogeyman attached, the idea that dark forces will leap out of the bushes, force women to have abortions on the Federal dime, that the old and infirm will be strapped to tables and murdered wholesale, and that this will all be done while jack-booted thugs go door-to-door, relieving the good citizens of our country of every dime they have.

Consider the idea, that bringing those who are responsible for the current "war on terror," -- the masterminds behind 9/11, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, and the attacks on our embassies overseas -- into this country, to face the same kind of justice that we hold so dear as citizens of America, constitutes some kind of horrible security breach, which will bring about a fresh reign of terror, as they mastermind their escape from confinement, and exhort their minions to pour into the streets and murder us in an orgy of mindless, heathen slaughter.

Consider how a whole class of people, homosexuals, is being marginalized and minimized, turned from decent, hard-working, tax-paying citizens, into purveyors of bestiality, roaming the streets in gangs, looking to poison the minds of our youth, turning them gay with mere words, corrupting future generations, leaving us vulnerable to their machinations. Were gays to be given the right to marry, straight couples would suddenly feel their hearts seize, their minds go blurry, their bonds of love being torn asunder, overwhelmed by the sheer force of homosexuality, obliterating modern human civilization and leading to anarchy and chaos.

When we look back into the human historical past, we are often amused by the quaint, superstitious, and frankly ridiculous beliefs that people held, laughing to ourselves at how silly they were to believe the things they did. We believe ourselves immune to the hysteria, the debauchery, the destruction of the past, because we are somehow more enlightened, more learned, more sophisticated. We would not be so easily duped, to be held down by rich lords, looking to use our labors to further their power, or cowed by the forces of nature, which we know to be natural, not the result of gods on high. We want to believe that we are better than that.

We're not.

We carry the baggage of human history with us, to this day, in the superstitions we continue to believe, in the irrational fear we feel at certain thoughts, and the beliefs we cling to, even when it is clear they are no longer valid or relevant. Our history continues to be littered with the detritus and debris of human stupidity and ignorance, for while we have grown smarter, we have not grown wiser. Knowledge does not beget wisdom, it is only one component thereof. How else do we explain the likes of Hitler, Pol Pot, "Reverend" Jim Jones, Bernie Madoff, or Timothy McVeigh? Were we wiser, would we have not seen the potential for destruction in them, and stopped them before they could harm humanity?

It is, perhaps, our fate to be hoodwinked, as long as we refuse to apply the precepts of reason and logic, as long as we are willing to surrender our individuality to the mob and abdicate our own need for clear, concise thought. Appeals to our emotions will garner greater energies than appeals to reason, for our feelings carry life within us, while reason feels cold and sterile. Yet, sadly, it is the exact opposite, for reason carries with it the continuation of life and the ability to live it free of fear and loathing, while emotions simply drain away our impulses toward goodness and decency, making us mindless automata, ripe for programming by those who would command us to our own destruction.

If we are to grow, as a people and as a culture, we must deny the comfort of charming words and their attendant feelings. We must not give in to simple impulses, but must ask what the ramifications of our actions are, or will be. We must tread carefully, deliberately, moving forward in measured increments, always keeping the greater good in our foremost thoughts. We cannot act in isolation, but must act in concert, if we are to slough off abject fear and replace it with steadfast resolution. We must not reject fear out of hand, for fear is the genesis of courage, but we must learn to examine it, dissect it, and take from it only what is necessary to move forward. To wallow in fear is to be sucked down into an abyss, from which humankind will be unable to extricate itself.