Fear Mongering: All's Fair?

I’m 58 years old, which obviously makes me I suppose, a “baby boomer”, for whatever that’s worth… not much I suspect! I’m also a Veteran (1967-1971). I am… a Recovering Drug Addict. I practiced my addiction for nearly three decades, losing the best years of my life to a very cruel disease. I have been in Recovery for over 13 years, and am now a Certified Counselor.

I was born in Missouri and when I was a child my family migrated from there to California. As a young teenager I lived the “Civil Rights” movement, which drew many of us into political and social awareness quite early in our lives. Thankfully we had John Fitzgerald Kennedy for a brief but very stabilizing and awakening time. I vividly remember his assassination and those of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK’s brother Robert Kennedy. We survived Richard M. Nixon! This was a very disheartening time to experience but was brightened by the ending of the Vietnam War, the expansion of civil rights to minorities and women. I’ve seen America at its best and at its worst. Pres. William Jefferson Clinton brought about some of best economic times in all of my life. But then came George W. Bush, who I saw right thru from the very beginning. It’s been like the trial of the Chicago 10, but strung out for 8 long years. I’ve seen things in the Bush administration that I would never have dreamed could happen in the country that I gave 4 years of my life for. I never dreamed we would repeat Vietnam. I never dreamed we would torture people. I never dreamed we would be spied on without warrants justifying it. I never dreamed that a microscopic section of the population could steal the bank accounts of almost every Citizen, with the help of the President. I never dreamed that a conspiring, greedy, rich, Texan could bankrupt our entire citizenry. The most frightening thing so far is happening as I write, though!

It’s like John McCain, Sarah Palin and their Campaign, took us all back in a time machine and have brought back the old days that my youth kind of buffered my heart from… Political fear mongering that has effects we are going to feel for long past the current election, especially if McCain loses as it seems he very well may. Their potential makes Bush look amateur, evoking old memories, of George Wallace as a governor who passed out baseball bats at his rallies, for use in controlling the minorities, and it sickens my heart. What went on at those Wallace rallies inspired people to boil with hatred that culminated into action “afterwards”, like hanging people and beating them to death. There were many Wallace’s then, because we had not fought to make them and their cruel beliefs unacceptable yet. What was all of the work we’ve done to make our country truly free, for?

I don’t know how to feel! Being a long-term recovering addict, my saving grace has been “Spirituality” and learning to live in a state of Serenity. It’s been a real task with Bush. Now comes along McCain and Palin! Just as these evil people have inspired bad things in their supporters; they have come close to achieving the same with me. I want to hate them, but will not allow them that! If I can’t hate them, what do I feel? Is complacency OK? I think not! I’m to old to start a “movement”. I participated in my share of political demonstrations, once-upon-a-time. I just don’t have that kind of energy, anymore. How do I handle this, I ask myself over and over, everyday? I’m inspired by, and think that Obama is different and will bring change… but… God forgive me, but what if this John McCain thing goes over-the-top, when he loses. What if they’ve given some sociopath the little push they needed to give their own life to kill Barack? What then? Joe Biden is a great guy and a good pick for VP, but he is not a Barack Obama, as is no one else in the current political arena. Then there’s the ultimate worst scenario… what if McCain and Palin were to win? Are they going to empower these nut cases we’ve seen at their rallies?

Is there something more to this move to equate Obama and Democrats to terrorists, the enemy, un-American? Who might be behind the scenes that we have no way of knowing about? Why does such a dangerous tactic keep going when even that campaign knows that winning is a long shot? They know how dangerous it is to do what they are doing. Are they just so afraid of losing that they don’t care about the country, at all? I want to be happy about the end of “business as usual” possibly happening, but this cosigning of hate, anger and violence is too frightening. What if it’s not over? What if it’s just starting?

Add voter suppression, which it seems Robert Kennedy, Jr. has proven has taken and is taking place. For the “first time” in my life, I asked myself this question. Does our form of Government work any better than any other? Or, is it gong to work at all for the mass of the citizens, in the future? Most sadly, is all of this evil going to undermine the amazing fact that we now have an African-American contender for Presidency of the United States of America?