Face the FEAR

[undergroundpanther]

Are we insane? Do we not know the dangers facing us? Have we been dumbed down to the point of incoherence?

You want to know the answer? It's NO
-- we know exactly what's happening. But there is one HUGE elephant in the room.

Fear.

It's fine for me to protest, as long as the cops don't beat me down. It's fine for me to write my congressperson, so long as I don't piss someone off and have someone in a suit with a gun and handcuffs knocking at my door. It's fine to argue with my Bush-lovin' neighbor, as long as tensions aren't too high and one of us doesn't end up in the morgue.

We're afraid of what might be coming to us if we act, and we're afraid of what we might do if we’re confronted. Will we risk our kids to child services if we get arrested and go to jail? Will we give up our homes? Can we physically fight back against a cop if we’re illegally threatened? Will we risk being killed for what we believe? Can we spend months, even years, in a courtroom or "holding cell"?

http://www.unknownnews.org/070327a-SherriB.html

[havocmom]

1. All life ends. That is the only sure thing

So one might as well live in the meantime. You aren't really living if you are fearful all the time.

I won't let them take my life away by making me fearful. I accept that they can take all I have, save my integrity. They can't take it by making me fearful.

They can kill me. But they cannot defeat me. Only I can do that. I choose not to and I actively protect my decision by refusing to be afraid.

[lvx35]

2. I'm very afraid of doing the wrong (immoral) thing.

I think at this point, I could even stand up and risk my life for the right thing, if I knew it was the right thing. The tricky thing is knowing what the right thing is and having that faith. We desperately need moral leaders now, people like MLK to identify the moral actions that we need to undertake. And if it means dogs, or fire hoses, I think we can handle it if we can feel in our hearts that its right. What I don't want to be is the guy who tries some direct action nonsense that gets spun as terrorism and basically plays directly into the hands of the Bushistas.