Saturday, October 11, 2008

Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. ~Ambrose Redmoon

I wish more people today could take a statement like this to heart. Our country, and all the people in our country, is transfixed in a state of perpetual fear. The driving force behind all political acts made today is fear. On a personal level, all social decisions are based off of fears. The people fear the government, the government fear the anarchists, the anarchists fear the religious, the religious fear the terrorists..or are the terrorists, and we all fear God. We all fear that there is no God. We all fear each other. We all fear ourselves.
When elementary school kids 100 years from now study this phase of American history, their teachers will explain to them that this, the 21st century, was the Age of Fear. It is what we will be remembered by, despite anything and everything that has happened and will happened; and this is fact. The unyielding and widespread epidemic of fear in our nation will trump any other detail of our existence during this century, just as it trumps any other detail of our every day lives.
We live in fear. We'll die in fear. We'll be remembered for our fear..And I've got to say, it kind of sucks. But I'm not about to attempt to convince an entire nation full of people that they have no reason to be afraid, and that everything will be fine if you just think positive.