We once had a president whose name I won't say in fear of being called a communist. He said that the only thing we need to be afraid of is fear itself. If you want to put a name with his words, we will call him FDR. That president took over a country that was on the cusps of two real crises. One was the Great Depression, which we were already in the early stages. The other was World War II while it had not began yet, the world was setting itself up for it. Do I agree with FDR's policies? Hardly, his interferences in the economy gave the nation problems that to this day keep getting kicked down the road. Later, he would lead a nation that would intern some of it's own citizens. Coincidently it would do this out of fear. We should never expect perfection just honest effort. However, our fear today is being stoked by politicians. FDR did not stoke fear. In fact, he stayed positive. He told the nation that the bad economic times would pass. He told the nation that we would defeat Japan and Germany. Let's see what our nation does today. Ebola breaks out, we want to ban flights from other parts of the world without considering the unintended consequences. A terror group attacks us, we invade two countries (one which was housing the terrorists, the other not so much). Those invasions right or wrong militarily, both violated our Constitution. We did not mind allowing one man to decide when, where and with whom we should go to war. We also gave away our liberties because we feared another attack and believed the government would protect us. We also fear letting others have religious liberties. Just look at stories about France prohibiting certain apparel of Muslim women, American comments support the French law. Some cities have tried to ban Mosques. American fears are used to trample the rights of others. Of course minorities are told to fear certain political parties. Just look at stories about literature that the Democrat party is sending out in Georgia. We fear a person crossing an imaginary line to better his family's life. We want the government to ask him questions that we would never allow the government to ask us. Oh wait, unless there is another terrorist attack. I can go on and on about our fears. The only thing it seems we do not fear is fear itself. In fact, we embrace the fear.
We once had a president with the initials JFK. He once encouraged Americans to do for others and their country. He said not to go around with a hand out if that hand was able. What is the motto of modern day America? I think it is somewhere along the lines of get yours and screw everyone else. We cheat each other. We cheat the system. We cheat our children. We think only of ourselves. We pay our taxes and expect the government to take care of our brothers and sisters. We do not parent our kids because we need to go out to the club. We constantly ask, "what's in it for me?" If we get offended, we ask everyone else to change instead of making a conscience choice to either avoid that situation or choose not to be offended. We want society to revolve around us.
We live in fear and with a sense of entitlement. Our politicians just keep those two pots stirred. We need a leader that will stand up and say that we will not fear, we will help our fellow man no matter how much different he is from me.
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