Unfounded Fears Are Not New In America. It's Almost Routine.

America! pic.twitter.com/YmxRUeCMnV

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) November 18, 2015

Fear is not a new condition:  Americans have been scared of almost everything beyond the familiar for its four hundred-plus years of existence.

If you cannot make it past the first sentence, then you have been a part of the problem for far too long, and nothing I can say can persuade you to think otherwise.

I am not saying that we are a nation of fear mongers (well, one political party and its likeminded ilk have a monopoly on the reactionary tactic of scaring the populace, but it’s not solely about them as the other one is equally complicit) as much as I am explicitly stating the obvious. My heart indeed goes out to those who lost family members in Paris, but let’s not discount those who lose loved ones anywhere else through terrorism internationally or on our own shores. In the words of several people who have tried to downplay Black Lives Matter by #AllLivesMatter, we know all lives matter not just those who look like us. However, this is not the blog, time, or place to engage in that discussion as I will not entertain it since that lends credence to that argument aimed to deflect the larger issue today.

Thou art become cruel to me:  with thy strong hand thou oppose thyself against me. – Job 30:21

Fear of the other has been around as long as we have been if not longer. If you need proof, then take a good look in the Bible and history books if they haven’t already been whitewashed to suit an agenda. For example, let’s take a good look at the Book of Exodus. I’ll start after the Israelites escaped Pharaoh’s clutches and ended up in the wilderness. Once they made it over, they began to complain about the living conditions “we don’t have anything to eat” or “where are we going to stay?” (Exodus 16) Some even wanted to go back to Egypt in bondage! Can you believe that some of us would rather surrender new freedoms in favor of a slavery which we already have experienced? While Moses was away doing God’s business, the assembly had the audacity to mess around and build a golden calf to worship like the other tribes! (Exodus 32) Their fear led to a larger result:  they walked around in a circle for forty years and were barred from the “land of milk and honey” beyond the Jordan River. Eventually, the Israelites were able to cross over, but had it not been for their fear of the unknown and ensuing sins, it could have happened in Moses’s lifetime. We also know that even he didn’t make it as a result of his killing of another man back in Egypt.

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? –Mark 4:40

Fear of the unknown is what drives men to do irrational things in perilous times.

Two more examples of fearmongering dominating rational thoughts come from American history:  the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, and McCarthyism from the 1950s.

BlackFact:  the Arkansas Legislature required free blacks to choose either exile or enslavement in 1859. Once exiled, they were not allowed to return under any circumstance. The Black Codes came the following year, banning free blacks from employment on ships and boats navigating the state. In addition, it was also illegal for black men to possess guns after the Civil War. Was retribution for stolen labor and broken families something lawmaking white men feared even then?

I won’t go too deep into the former as we all know the results of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow, the Klan, and separate but equal legislation passed not only in statehouses but also in Congress, but the latter is a more recent reminder of how fear can grapple a nation. If you wonder where President George W. Bush got his ideology of “you’re with us, or you’re against us”, look no further to the 1950s when Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) was the mastermind of the Second Red Scare.

 “McCarthyism” is the term/practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also is used now more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

For the unaware, being a Communist back then was akin to today’s socialists or Muslims in one regard:  their ideals threaten (falsely) our way of life. With help from the US government, a number of citizens were labeled as Communists, most notably Nobel-prize winning mathematician Albert Einstein; actress Lucille Ball; civil rights activist and author W.E.B. DuBois; playwright Arthur Miller; singer Lena Horne; writer Langston Hughes; CBS newscaster and analyst Edward Murrow; and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. If you think the rhetoric has eased up, consider the Twitter accounts of certain politicians and the way they bandy around the code words liberal, conservative, freedom-loving, thug, and so forth. Similarly, can anyone tell me what happened to the Dixie Chicks once their lead singer spoke out against the most recent war in Iraq?

Being popular isn’t always being right, and being right certainly is not being about following the crowd to gain popularity.

Which brings us to today:  a number of governors (twenty-four, at this posting) are barring Syrian refugees from their states. Two notes that are not entirely a shock are all of the governors are Republicans; and while I respect their efforts to protect the citizenry of each state, they conveniently forget that not only the United States of America is a nation of immigrants but also each stands to violate the Refugee Act of 1980 signed by President Carter providing plenary power to resettle refugees anywhere in the country. While states can make it difficult by not participating and cutting their own funding in the area, the screening process for would-be refugees is significant taking an average of eighteen to twenty four months up to a decade. Furthermore, the rhetoric only elevates the hysteria which we all live in. To limit their travel is reminiscent of those sundown towns that minimized if not outright banned African-Americans from moving around from one location to the next as they have the freedom of movement. I am not saying that we should live as cowards, yet falling for the okie-doke ISIS and other extremist groups presents means we are already losing the battle to live freely.

Here's what refugees go through before being allowed to enter the U.S. https://t.co/h8OkpbwOdj pic.twitter.com/9RdzXSP5QM

— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) November 17, 2015

I personally do not condone the violence and the hypocrisy of the media (the latter is for a different day), but if a man is so desperate in his own life that strapping a bomb around his body in the name of religion to end his and as many lives as possible in the name of jihad, there is something gravelly wrong that cannot be fixed overnight. Consider the living situations beyond those of our first world standards for a moment:  how would you react to people who have nary a care about their lives and to what point can they receive necessary help before blowing themselves and countless others to smithereens? I don’t have the answers; I honestly do not know. As Americans, we are more than fortunate to not have endured guerilla terrorism beyond 9/11 and our resiliency shall NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

It’s okay to be wary of the world’s events – I worry daily about what my daughter will inherit after I am dead and gone. What is not acceptable is living afraid of everything and instantly becoming xenophobic because someone has a different surname or practices a religion we do not agree with; keep in mind Christianity was used as a defense for a litany of sins [see: the Crusades, slavery, Jim Crow, the internment camps Asian-Americans suffered through during World War II, etc.]. Using one to trump the other simply falls into the hands of our moral if not always physical enemies. In Ephesians 6:10-17, we all put on the WHOLE armor of God in our daily battles not only against flesh and blood we encounter but also in the fight evil principalities in high places.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. – Ephesians 6:12

Another inconvenient truth. pic.twitter.com/cQLNEB6wBt

— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) November 18, 2015

Fear is not a new condition – the world has operated on the things we are most afraid of for centuries. Sadly, someone will find a way to capitalize on our angst as a means of intimidation to disrupt us from our typical lifestyles. If we are paralyzed by what could happen, then we stop living – and that is the largest tragedy.