There are many things people are dealing with every day that I fear happening to me. I don’t ever want to know what it’s like to have taken a life, even in self-defense. I don’t ever want to drop a bomb or leave one on a train. I don’t ever want to be blown to parts or pierced with a bullet. I don’t ever want to know what must be going through these peoples mind (taken from RubDMC‘s Daily Witness diaries):
I never hope to witness such a scene.
I never want my sister or anyone to experience this.
I fear the yellow elephants have created a monstrous and expensive war with no end in sight. Where terror rules the streets and innocent young men are being kidnapped, tortured, and killed to further provoke ethnic strife while crime runs rampant among regular suicide bombs and Bush doesn’t even want the winner of his glorified election to take power (and I don’t blame him!). I’ve fear being on the edge of death and not returning like Sgt. Major Meyers. I fear the blow-back of George W. Bush’s war of choice that has emboldened our enemies in Iran and North Korea and created a training-ground, not fly-trap for terrorists in Iraq.
I fear how our troops and civilians will be treated in the future as a result of chiken-hawk know-nothing cowardly SHITS like Alberto Gonzalez and John Ashscroft shred the Geneva conventions contrary to the advice of experienced Pentagon JAGs, Colin Powell, and John McCain. I fear what these neo-conservative and federalist academics are teaching future lawyers in our elite law-schools. What kind of role-model are we setting for the world with extraordinary rendition? There’s unlimited money and resources when it comes to bombing Iraq into a democracy while Republicans deliberately neglect voting standards here in America. I fear for our privacy when the supposed party of small government creates the Orwellilan Department of Homeland Security that is better at confiscating cheaper prescription drugs coming to America than radioactive material.
I fear a looming energy crisis and peak oil that our leaders continue to ignore because they live in a bubble of affluence and are too busy making money. I fear fundamental shifts in our environment that will make possible regular Hurricane Katrinas and the Asian Tsunami. I fear becoming ill in a healthcare system that panders to wealthy pharmaceutical CEOs who promote expensive treatment over cures and prevention. And while our economy struggles I don’t see it getting any better because our education system perpetuates a class system that we’re taught doesn’t exist and we’re led by a leader so clueless as to think Federal testing and underfunding is a solution. I fear not knowing what to do to make it better.
“I fear not knowing what to do to make it better”.
I hear you on that one my friend. Some days I ask myself what the hell are you doing Leezy? Most days I just want to say F it and go hide under a rock somewhere. The, I look into my grandleezy’s beautiful blue eyes and tell myself just one more day. I will fight just one more day for her future, for the children of the world that don’t deserve what this regime has done.
Well, at least Netanyahu got his ass handed to him in the Israel elections. That’s something to be cheerful about.
Being afraid isn’t the same thing as being a coward. Any person of sense would look at the state of our country and be alarmed.
Some people (the real cowards in my opinion) refuse to see what is going on around them and in their names. Some people are more aware, but proclaim themselves powerless — which in their minds exempts them from all responsibility. Many of us here are trying to do something. We are a least nibbling around the edges: educating ourselves, registering voters, writing letters to legislators and to the editor, marching in demonstrations.
This diary and the front-page diary by Soj say to me that at some point we may have to do more. That we may have to leave our comfort zones. What we will do, I do not know. Boycotts, a national strike, civil disobedience. I ‘m not sure. I am sure we will be called upon to do more. I hope we all respond with wisdom, creativity and courage.
There are plenty of Americans, millions, who do not have the courage to acknowledge or confront the situation at all, much less admit that they are unprepared emotionally and every other way for the circumstances in which they find themselves.
When you are ready, the Resistance will find you, and your courageous cowardice will “stand you in good stead” to do your part. 🙂