Vacating The Field Of Fear

The hour is ours. It is time for each and every one of us to ask the important questions, to search our souls for our own answers, and to take action."A participant at a speech I recently gave at the University of Massachusetts pointed out that I wrote the above in Confessions of An Economic Hit Man. That book was published in late 2004. Since then, the role of the corporatocracy has become more apparent to more people on every continent, including North America.Everywhere I go these days, I hear people freely admitting that the men (and a very few women) who run our government and biggest businesses are out of control. The corporatocracy -- along with its greed and willingness to kill its own people, as a well as those it calls "enemy" -- has been exposed. With this changing consciousness comes a greater responsibility for us all to speak out and to take actions that will change this terrible situation. We must each plumb the depths of our souls, look to our passions and talents, and commit to those actions that are appropriate for each of us as individuals and as members of the world community.Our own government, in alliance with the big corporations and banks, has created an empire that imposes servitude, misery and death on millions of people. As a result, we who reside within the walls of the empire find ourselves surrounded by a field of fear that has been constructed by those who fatten their wallets by claiming to defend themselves (and us) against what they assert is tyranny.This field of fear has replaced the terror we once felt of leering Bolsheviks, Communist infiltrators, and the "Red Wave" we were told would swept out of Vietnam if we lost that war. We rid ourselves of the Communists, lived in relative security for a brief moment in history, and now are assured that there is a new -- and even greater -- menace. Our nation has become terrified of suicide bombers, airplane hijackers, a mosque near Ground Zero, and neighbors who hail from different backgrounds.We drain our economy to pay for airport guards who funnel us into metal detectors and paw through our most personal belongings and for private armies that slaughter innocent civilians in countries most of us will never visit. We allow ourselves to be told that tiny nail files are so dangerous they must be ripped from our nail clippers, that toothpaste tubes of more than 3 ounces threaten 747s, and that armies owned by millionaire supporters of our political parties are somehow more acceptable than ones staffed by military officers sworn to uphold our Constitution.The sad truth is that our way of life is based on fear, our economy is dependent on war and so-called Homeland Security. This must end.It is time to vacate the field of fear. We now need to call for President Obama to take the troops completely out of Iraq and Afghanistan as promised. We need to demand accountability for crimes that were committed by our forces and their leaders during the war. We need to cease relying on predatory capitalism as a way of being.There will always be a few fanatics in the world -- just as their will be mass murderers and rapists. But the fanatics are successful at gathering followers only when people feel desperate, mistreated, and hopeless. Acts of terrorism and desperation will end when enough of us demand that our corporations, banks, and government cease to exploit the majority of the world's population and resources. Peace will arrive only when we insist on dealing with the world from a place of compassion - the very place I was taught that my dad and so many others defended during World War II.It is essential that we send new messages to refute the old ones. Insist that our leaders look beyond profits, and produce goods and services that foster a better world. Demand compassion in our leadership before they demand more troops. Reach deep into our hearts and (to paraphrase the Bible) love our neighbors, both our perceived enemies and ourselves, so we can achieve a saver world in our lifetime.The hour is indeed ours. You and I must take action.