False Evidence Appearing Real

This is a follow up to my last blog post about my family members being uneasy when they are on a plane with Middle Eastern looking people. I received a lot of comments both on the blog and on facebook and a few privately about me needing to understand where they are coming from and "the state of world." I appreciate all comments and conversation and never ever desire that every one think, believe or act the way that I do. But I still stand on my opinion of profiling and judgment.

I have been thinking a lot about these comments and then the mass murder spree happened this week. Another disturbed individual took it upon himself to act out his anger by taking a gun and mowing down people.

Goddess and I have had a lot to talk about this week.

Last Friday night, I was taking my parents home from eating dinner out for my Dad's 81st birthday. When we drove up, Mom noticed a medium sized snake on the sidewalk to the front door (we enter through the garage where the cars are parked). My Mom began yelling at my Dad to get the shovel and cut the snakes head off and Kill it. She was Terrified and we were still in the car. I told her that I would get it away and we were not Killing the snake. She began to Shake in Terror and argued until I could get her out of the car and into the house. I then asked Dad for the  water hose and we pushed the shake back into the forest away from the house without killing it. Mom was not happy with me at all that evening; terrified that the snake would come back.

When I got home I kinda laughed to myself. I imagined this snake being a scout, sent out by the terrorists snakes to see who was home so they could attack. Now, don't get me wrong, I totally understand being afraid of snakes, and I know this was a copperhead and given enough provocation could have struck and caused problems for each of us, BUT I began to wonder: Why is our first instinct to KILL the perceived "enemy"? Why? Because we can! We have the Power, the Control and the Entitlement to Kill the poor snake that was minding its own business not even understanding that it was trespassing on my parent's property. Thus, reason for Killing the intruder.

Ok, so what does this have to do with the follow up to my last blog post? I am getting to it.

As I was walking this morning I began to think about FEAR. I began to really think about how much we are all AFRAID these days. We are afraid we will get Cancer, lose our jobs, be blown up in a plane by a Middle Eastern looking man, be raped, have our homes foreclosed on, be vandalized, get Alzheimers, etc etc etc........

When I was a Christian, I believed there was this Satan who existed, and this Satan caused all the evil things to happen in the world. Heck, when my husband was at his worst I blamed Satan for getting inside of him instead of holding my ex responsible for his abusive behavior. Satan...evil....

Well, I no longer believe in this Satan, but I do understand that there is a Negative Force that permeates our lives and this morning on my walk I realized it is FEAR! We live Afraid! But we choose what to be afraid of. We choose it because we listen to what the Media tells us and what our Government tells us and what our Religion tells us and what our Medical professionals tell us, what our Talk Show Hosts tell us, we are to be afraid of.

And then because we are Human Beings; the most Powerful, the most Intelligent, the most Wonderful beings on the earth we use our sense of Power and Control and Entitlement to deal with our FEAR how ever we wish to do so. If that means cutting off the head of a snake minding its own business or shooting 7 women or blowing up airplanes or abusing children; then so be it. It is our right to do so because we are going to "get them before they get us"! It is our Right; we are entitled not to be afraid, to protect ourselves and our loved ones at all costs. But the funny thing is, we only become more Afraid.

FEAR to me is the great "evil" in the world. The young man who went on the shooting spree was AFRAID of the rejection and of never having a woman have sex with him. The 9/11 Terrorists were AFRAID of the power that this country wields. Men are AFRAID of loosing their Rightful Position of Power, the Church is AFRAID of those who don't think like them, etc etc etc.

It is FEAR....False Evidence Appearing Real....that keeps us in this mindset of "if every one had guns then when someone starts shooting we can shoot back." It is madness....it is FEAR!

And those in "Power" thrive on instilling that fear on the masses. The Church does it with the FEAR of Hell and Damnation. The Government does it with the FEAR of....oh you name it and they instill FEAR! Hey I remember being scared shitless as a child of the mean ol' Soviet Union. I got that FEAR because every few weeks we had bomb drills and we had to either get under our desks or sometimes we had to run home as fast as we could. I was so scared and I didn't even know who Mr. Russia was.

I choose not to be AFRAID! I choose not to be looking over my shoulder at every one trying to discern if they are a danger to me or not. Yes, I am alert. Yes, I am aware of my surroundings (I am a retired social worker for Goddess sakes....). Yes, I understand that there are people who make horrible choices that may in fact put me or one of my loved ones in danger. But I am also an intelligent woman. And just seeing a "Middle Eastern looking" man on a plane is no evidence that he is going to blow up the plane. And just seeing a snake on the side walk does not mean it will slither over as soon as I get out of the car just so it can bite me.

In this day and age of Mass Media; 24 hour news access and good ol' facebook we are never without something to be Afraid of. And that my friend is so very very sad. And I often wonder if a lot of our "mental illness" is just not the result of living in this Madness day after day after day!

So, I stand by my last blog post, that it is a sad statement that we live our lives in this way; Profiling and Judging and as a Result live in FEAR.

Take a step back and really look at what we are all Afraid of. We are Afraid of loosing Power and Control. That's what it is all about really! Cancer takes away our Control over life; the Terrorist takes away our Control of peaceful living; the Church takes away our Control over our own decisions in this lifetime; and the Government...well, that's a Blog for another Time!

Peace, Love and Not Being Afraid!