The Only Thing to Fear is Fear Itself...Not Anymore

When did it become ok to shut down an  entire metropolitan area of a U.S. city to hunt a murder suspect? Are Americans now supposed to fear for our lives everytime a murder takes place. Even one as widely publicized as the Boston bombings?
Descriptions came from citizens in Boston metro of military style occupation of their neighborhoods. There was even mention of tanks being used. Seriously? In a nation that just days ago allowed its Congress to shoot down the benign background check law we're supposed to quiver in fear whenever a murder occurs? This nation that relishes the violence of gunplay and shoot-outs wants the citizens to stay indoors, don't let anybody but an uniformed officer enter, close your blinds, hide, live in fear?
The "Prince" has won. Or rather princes. We're all supposed to suspend life because two idiot terrorists chose to murder at one of the iconic sporting events, the Boston Marathon. So, the terrorists have won the infamy they sought for themselves and whatever cause they claim to represent. They win, we lose. Big governmental surveilance and policing wins. If we thought we lived in a police state before we've not seen anything yet.
Which makes me wonder, where's all the policing and surveilance been in the neighborhoods of Chicago and others that have daily body counts? The neighborhoods of color should be so lucky as having the security shown in the pursuit of two murderous fanatics. Wouldn't it be nice if parents in these neighborhoods could feel their children are safe?
And it astonishes me the mass media has been allowed to perpetrate the scare tactics, false rumors and just plain awful journalism. Almost like they've become complicit in keeping the citizenry terrified for the militaristic police forces and federal agencies. We witnessed an alleged expert in criminal behaviors come on the air spouting his "sources" told him the bombers were men with brown skin, the code for Arabic terrorists. Turns out the bombers were as lily white as the racist commentator. But now there is said to be Islamic connections. There's supposed to be more than one bomb in the city. Does this make them different from Timothy McVeigh?
So all sporting events, all train traffic and even all air travel is shut down. We're supposed to believe the two are so sophisticated in their criminal activity they have to shut the city down. So why were they so easily spotted on video? Why has every action they've taken seemed more like hate filled amateurs violently acting out than a terrorist cell planning on the destruction of the entire city of Boston?
In the past Americans were told not to allow fear to overcome us. Told the criminals win if we allow them to keep us from carrying on our daily lives. Now every time there's a threat we're supposed to hide in fear and trust our militarized police forces will protect us. And pray their stray shots during fire fights don't kill one of us. Or their high speed chases don't run us over.
Living in fear is living only a part of life. The world is dangerous and there are numerous predators lurking in all parts of our world. I witnessed Vietnamese villagers carry on living their daily lives in spite of American and Viet Cong/North Vietnamese troops constantly intruding on their safety. They kept living their lives in spite of daily bombings. The same was witnessed by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fear is crippling and leads to dependency on "others" to protect us. Especially those who wield far too much power over us already.
I don't give a damn about the two killer brothers responsible for their heinous acts of terror on children and innocents. I don't give a damn about their motivations. They won't get any of my sympathy. No, instead, it angers me that a nation would allow two killers with hate in their heart to cripple a major metropolitan area the way these two were allowed to do.
It angers me they've given the para-military police and federal agencies constantly wanting to usurp our rights more opportunity to do just that. And it gives me a strange feeling when I watch a largely white neighborhood told to stay out of their streets for the entire day cheering the hundreds of heavily armed police, federal agents and others to take down one single person once they finally do. I thought of the word "lemmings" as I watched that scene.
It angers me that the same strength of force can't be brought to the poor neighborhoods of gang and drug activity to bring justice to the moms and dads who stare helplessly when their children are shot down by stray gunfire of the gangsters. It angers me that we should applaud the forces of police power but do nothing to condemn the politicians that leave us all vunerable to the gunfire of fanatics and criminals because they fear the power of the death dealers like the NRA. It angers me to see Obama talk about the grief of the dead from such crimes as these but how little he says about the dead of the neighborhoods of color living through decades of war brought to them by gangsters armed by the death dealers associated with the NRA.
Our fears are only increased by what we perceive as terrorism but we hardly blink at the larger causes of death brought on by our own neglect of those less "worthy" of our attention. We hardly blink at the stripping of our basic rights as citizens every time there's one of these highly publicized crimes. There should be terror in our minds at this prospect of constantly living in fear of gangsters, terrorists and politicians more than willing to take our rights.
There will be no freedom when we allow this fear to rule us.