Fear
For a short time after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in 2001, seeing planes in the sky freaked me out a little. But after a few months that feeling went away. You just can't carry that fear around with you every day. If you do I guess then it's called post-traumatic stress disorder.
I felt the same way after Matthew Shepard got the shit beat out of him and was left for dead by a bunch of heterosexuals. For a few weeks after that incident I looked at every heterosexual as a potential threat. Does that guy across the street hate gays and not hesitate to beat my skull in with a pistol if he could? But that fear also went away, and reason trumped my irrational responses upon seeing heterosexuals all around me every day.
And I suppose I should be more alert when I walk home from the MetroRail station to my place in Shaw. People get shot and beaten there, but if I was paranoid and freaked out twice a day beelining it from home to subway and back I would be an emotional wreck. I try to be alert, but not fearful. Fear gives me acid indigestion and makes me cranky so I try to avoid it.
Yeah, maybe we should always be vigilant and on guard against potential terror in our world, but then we'd all be like Dick Cheney and waterboarding everyone in sight too. You just can't live that way 24/7, and we Americans like our freedoms on a daily basis. It's something we're comfortable with. I think on 9/11/2001 we got caught with our pants down in a very bad way, but since then we have made some improvements in how we look out for such dangers. It was a terrible tragedy but it's not something that happens every day.
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You have written an accurate description about the power of fear and an accurate rationale for not letting it rule us. I wish more people understood this; America would be a much better place to live.
Thanks,
Steve in NH
We've been force fed fear every four hours or so like aspirin for 8 years now. Enough already. Yes we will be watchful. Yes we will be diligent. Yes we will be careful and mindful and strong -- but no, we will not be manipulated and intimidated any longer. Enough is enough and it's time that sanity returns. We CAN do this. Those wack jobs on the right are still trying to manipulate us but we can say "no" to their tactics.
p.s: Obama is not akin to Hitler. So stop it already.
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. It is true that this country has had no terrorist attacks since 9/11. But we do have to keep our guard up.