Reply #7: I agree, and it amazes me [View All]

[ninkasi]

The Republican party has played the terra, terra, be afraid card for way, too long. This country's reaction baffles me. Are we so timid, and so frightened, that we are going to let the Bush administration get away with seizing our civil liberties, spying on us, waging a phony war which is bankrupting us? It's humiliating. I am in my sixties, have a hard time walking, and I'm not afraid of terrorists.

How many victims of Katrina thought before the storm, that their worst fear was of terrorists? Even the wealthy ones, who saw their homes and jobs destroyed, didn't dream that Mother Nature was more dangerous than terrorist attacks. We get in our cars and drive every day, knowing that people are killed every year in traffic accidents, but we accept it as a fact of modern life, and try to drive safely.

What about our ancestors, the pioneers who traveled from the safety of cities in order to find a better life by traveling west? They left in covered wagons, and carved out lives while facing many dangers. I wonder how many women, living in sod houses in the howling winds and biting cold of midwestern plains, waited in vain for a husband to come home? He could have died trying to shoot game to feed his family, or any number of other reasons. She faced childbirth alone, many times, but kept having children anyway.

Maybe the fear that now grips too many citizens is karmic payback for the terror that we were to the native Americans who were already on this land. I don't know, but I do know that I refuse to live my life whimpering with fear at every shadow I see. It is America's fear that causes us to terrorize others, in another part of the world. If we are not willing to honestly address the reasons they are willing to die for their cause, we will never be able to come up with a solution to living in peace.