The Cost of Fear
Fear drives people like the unstable young man who drove for hours to murder Black people he didn’t even know. What drives this fear? It cannot be losing their “position” to people of other nationalities because they had no position to begin with. They cannot fear losing their money or property to others because they have none. In fact, most have nothing, so where is this fear coming from? It comes from people like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson who mistakenly led these people to think they were special. Skin color does not make them special, nor does it deem them superior to anyone else. Many use some strange twist on religion and fancy themselves martyrs. If one truly believes in God, then he or she knows that God created all of mankind.
White Supremacists are a different breed. The Klan used to burn crosses, as if their evil was sanctioned by God. They spend their time hating others because of the way they look or speak, what they believe, or whom they love. Hate is not from God nor any entity that we are taught operates in good; only fear breeds hate. According to CNN, the New York murderer lived in fear “that the White population in the United States was dwindling in size.” What that has to do with him personally is a mystery. Was he afraid that with fewer white people, he would have no one with whom he could identify? That is utter nonsense. People of all ages, races, and sexual orientations share many commonalities. If we take the time to look for them, we will find them, but some are too blind to see. This young man took the time to write a 180-page manifesto of his own insanity. No sane person makes a document filled with hatred and then drives three and a half hours to kill people he doesn’t even know because of the color of their skin. This man and people like him are too paralyzed by their fears to see anything but what those fears generate in them, which is the exact opposite of what they should see. Opinion writer for CNN Dean Obeidallah said what many of us feel: ” . . . [D]emographic change is nothing to fear in America. In fact, it’s part of what makes our nation so exceptional.”
Part of the reason for the rise is in this type of behavior is in our nation’s capital. We had a racist in the White House who stoked the flames of racism. We have GOP members who have no qualms about spouting their nonsense even as Liz Cheney calls them out on it. This rhetoric absolutely must stop. There are too many fearful, gullible people in our country who fall for and act based upon it. If they are true leaders, our leaders will speak against White nationalism instead of participating in it, like Gosar and Greene did in February. There is no place in government for bigots and flame-fanners. We may not be able to do anything about those on the streets, but we can certainly curtail this behavior in Washington.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years