I think it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said, "The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself." It was his way of telling the nation that
our fears for the future were keeping our nation from economic recovery from
the Great Depression. We, too, must be careful not to be immobilized by the
fear - fear of war, fear for ourselves and our family members, fear of Arabs
or Muslims, fear of anthrax or other deadly diseases.
Fear in these days is
perfectly understandable. Never before has our nation endured such a massive
attack. Never before have we been forced to deal with terrorism. Never before
have we had to experience what it must feel like to live in Colombia, a nation
which has experienced war for 50 years, in which terrorism is a daily part of
life. Never before have we had to experience what it must feel like to live
in Indonesia or the Philippines. The truth is that many nations have suffered
terrorism, sometimes on a daily basis, for decades and many of us ignored their
cries for justice.
Just as we must be careful not to be immobilized by the fear,
we must also be careful not to become driven by the fear either. Vengeance and
blind retaliation can result from the fear. Racial and religious stereotyping
and profiling can result from the fear. Bad foreign policy - the support of
repressive regimes just because they support us, for example, can result from
the fear.
Fear is a funny thing. It can cause us to forget history. In all the
stories about those terrible attacks in New York and Washington, for instance,
we talked about the massive loss of life, forgetting that thousands were killed
in the Tulsa race riots in 1921, where an entire 35 block community was destroyed
only because it was black and where thousands of black families were forced
into exile, most never to return. We forgot the story of Rosewood, Florida,
where a smaller version of the same kind of annihilation occurred.
Fear can
even cause us to forget recent history. Many Americans, including even some
of the African Americans who were victims themselves of racial profiling, closed
their eyes to what was and is happening to Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.
As we continue to hear stories of Arab Americans taken off airplanes only because
they made some passenger or crew member uncomfortable, not because they were
acting suspiciously or had done anything threatening, we know that the fear
is still in control.
Fear can cause us to allow our civil liberties to be eroded
for the sake of "national security." Make no mistake about it, I want
our country to protect its citizens from attack of whatever kind. But I worry
when I hear that there are dozens, perhaps hundreds - no one really knows the
number, of Arabs and Arab Americans being held by the government in the Manhattan
Detention Center in New York City, with no charges and perhaps no attorneys.
I worry when the president's press secretary warns the media about its coverage
of the president and the bombings. History tells us that when the fear takes
over, nations allow their freedom to be curtailed and that is always dangerous.
These are fearful times. But we must not allow the fear to consume us.