"Stop Scaring Us!"

The United States of America is the most powerful nation on earth.  I don’t even have to qualify that with an “arguably.”  No one will argue with this.  We’ve got the guns, the planes, the tanks, the bombs and everything else we need to defend ourselves against any and all comers.  Therefore, to my leaders -- political, religious, business, and all others -- I say: “Stop scaring us!”

Citizens of the United States are as hard working, inventive, resilient, persistent, ingenious, resourceful, integral – need I go on? – as any people on the face of the planet.  We put a man on the moon, for crying out loud.  We may not lead the world in making automobiles any more, but we invented the dang thing in the first place, didn’t we?  If history tells the tale then when we are called upon to fight – even with each other -- we fight as hard and well as any, right?  Come on, the world may not love us, but they sure as heck know better than to cross us.

“Stop scaring us!”

There is a T-shirt sold in the Old City of Jerusalem.  It is sold in Palestinian shops as well as Israeli shops.  It sports the picture of a jet fighter plane – an F16, I think.  Around the fighter jet is written: “Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you.”

Okay, so that’s a little scary.  But only a little, and it is also more than a little true, so “Stop scaring us.”

Stop telling us that every decision you make is for our safety and for the safety our children.  We want you to make decisions that are for the good of the world, not just our little corner of it.  We are bigger and better than just being concerned for our own welfare and the welfare of our children.  If we’re not, then we won’t be the most powerful nation on earth for much longer, and then we will have reason to be scared.

Think bigger and better, and for God’s sake, “Stop scaring us.”

If you are going to send more soldiers into Iraq, then please don’t try to scare us into supporting you.  For goodness sake, don’t tell us that you are doing this for us – okay? Tell us the truth.  Tell us that the situation in Iraq is a mess and that we can’t just leave this mess because we made this mess.  We’ll accept this because we’re not stupid.  Don’t blame neighboring Arab nations for this mess.  Don’t blame the Iraqi people for this mess.  Don’t blame radical religion for this mess.  We made this mess, and we know this is true, don’t we?  We’re not puppies who pee on the floor and then 10 minutes later after the lady of the house steps in it without her shoes on, forget that we’re the one who made the floor wet.  We know this is our mess to help clean up.  Tell us that staying in Iraq is the right thing to do.  Tell us you can’t think of anything better to do.  Tell us this is our best option among a bunch of bad options.  We’ll believe you.  We’ll even respect you.  We might not like it.  We might not like you.  But we will support you, because we want to do what is right.

“Stop scaring us.  Start leading us.”

If you don’t think we should send more soldiers into Iraq, and you want us to get behind an effort to resist this move, then you need to come up with something better than comparing Iraq with Viet Nam.  Some of us are still able to remember enough about Viet Nam to know that there are some significant differences between Iraq and Viet Nam.  The primary similarity between the two is the boogieman that has been set up to scare us.  As it turned out, Communism wasn’t that scary.  It will turn out that fundamental Islam isn’t that scary either.  The one lesson we ought to learn from Viet Nam is that the enemy is not the enemy – fear is the enemy.  “Stop scaring us!”

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”   Roosevelt said this when we had reason to be afraid.  Who is saying this now?

“Stop scaring us.”

“Start trusting us.”  And then, maybe you leaders can lead us into something bigger and better than a “war on terror.”  In my not-always-so-humble opinion, the war we ought to wage is on the myths and misinformation and misdirection that are making us afraid.  We do not have to be afraid of anyone or anything except our own ignorance and arrogance.  Or at least that seems to be God’s opinion on the matter.  “Fear not …”

Why not fear not?