Being Scared

As I peruse the world wide web, reading various news articles on the newspaper's websites in the various cities I have lived, it strikes me how many of them now allow people to comment on the articles. It also strikes me how articles about mundane things can become politicized by the commenters. Every day takes us closer to the Presidental Election, and of course that is on everyone's minds. But what interests me about this is how "scared" everyone is. Inevitably, someone will post something about how Palin scares them because she is so unqualified, or whatever. And then someone else will post how Obama scares them because he is socialist, or whatever. Over and over, people are scared by the opposing candidate(s). Come November 4th, some will continue to be scared, others will rejoyce.

This interests me because I still remember the 2000 election vividly. I was living in Florida, which ended up being ground zero in the battle for the presidency. I remember being full of anxiety as the election approached, and when no winner was declared it only grew and grew. The idea the W could be president was intolerable. What would become of our world? Of our lives? I remember seeing a sign on campus on the day of the election that said, "Not another son of a bush!" And yet, here we are 8 years later. It hasn't been pretty - that's for sure. We're in an endless and pointless war, thousands of lives needlessly lost. Bin Laden is still on the loose after killing thousands of people in our country. The economy soared and then crashed. The gap between the rich and the poor has only expanded. It's kind of a mess. Some of it is W's fault, some of it isn't.

In the past 8 years, I also finished 2 more degrees, got married, my husband completed 2 degrees, we lived in 3 different states, our income has gone from below poverty line to solidly middle class, and we had a child. I'm not trying to diminish the terrible things that W and his peeps have done to our country. That's part of what is so shocking to me: that this election is anything but a landslide. You'd think people would be lining up behind the Democrats to make a change. But fear rules. I guess sometimes it's easier to stick with the known awfulness than to leap into the possibly better.

Point being, life goes on. One of them will win, and half of the people will feel anxiety and fear because of it. And yet our government is supposed to be "by the people, for the people." Most people do nothing in the political process. Most don't even vote. What I'm saying is if people are so scared, then do something about it! Whoever gets into office is not a king, is not a dictator. He will not have infinite power. That's not what our system is about. So, use that fear or anxiety to keep him honest. To keep whoever's administration on the right track. W has done what he's done because good people sat back and let him do it. We were so scared by September 11th, that we gave him free reign. We have to say never again.

We can let fear paralyze us, or motivate us. Maybe this time around we'll choose the later.