People are frightened

[Winterblues]

I don't recall any period in my lifetime that I have witnessed so much fear among Americans. It is fear for the future. They are not afraid of terrorists, though I am sure many Republicans are, but it is a visceral fear for their financial security. Many if not most Americans that have money set aside for their retirement have seen it almost vanish in the last several weeks and no one is offering them any real solutions or confidence that things will get better any time soon and/or they will gain back some of their losses. There has been a lot of money lost lately among just regular folks and then they see our government give away hundreds of billions of dollars to those that absconded with their retirement money/future. I am so sad for our country..

[graywarrior]

1. America has lived in fear for 8 years.

[stray cat]

4. But those of us with jobs and some savings would like to not lose both

Also, we may have to prepare to help retired family members or those losing job financially the best that we can.

[graywarrior]

8. I talked to a stockbroker last night

He is freaked. Frightened beyond belief. He claims his great granchildren will be paying off this mistake.

[tech3149]

15. I only have one of those two, but I'd like not to lose that

On the other hand, if I need to lose 30 or 40% of my savings to teach these a#$holes a lesson, I think it's a fair price to pay. Unfortunately, I expect they won't learn any lessons or it will be a new group of fresh faces thinking they can get money for nothing.

[wishlist]

2. Sad too the way Repubs are trying to incite fear of Obama instead of hope

For many Americans, the only hope is to put Repubs out of the White House and get Democratic policies back in place, but instead they are being told by Palin, McCain et al to be afraid.

[ailsagirl]

3. Letting fear eat away at us is giving away our power-- people have

to focus on Obama and the future. I know that sounds simplistic but it's true.
:patriot:

As FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

[AlCzervik]

5. fear is also local, where i live people are worried because we're not doing so well right now.

i was getting my car serviced yesterday and there were other customers in there as well and all started talking about the state of our city, i have no idea what their political leanings are but we all shared the same worries.

[spanone]

6. the neocons have trashed our future

[anarch]

7. Fear is the path to the dark side.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

[EFerrari]

9. Your job must be very secure.

I contract my work out and haven't worked full time for over a year, first time in a 30 year career.

And *that* level of employment just went south.

[Hekate]

12. ... And it serves those in power to keep us in fear. Terra-terra-terra. Why do they do it? It works.

[2speak]

10. Eventually all untruths are exposed for what they are.

[onecent]

11. I have a 10 year warranty on my new refrig. it's about 5 years old

and when I called Sears, the guy came out "the next day". I said, "I don't have a Maytag Fridge, how did you get out here so quick?". He said NO one is calling for repairs.

After he came to my house he was told to go home. And he said, no work, no income.

[marions ghost]

13. It's hard to relate to, I must admit

because all I've felt for 8 years IS fear...so how do you add more fear to what was already at toxic levels? At some point you just get numb.

Americans were going to have to come out of denial at some point. So I guess this may be the point. The exploitation is plain as day now. Hard for anyone to ignore.

Together we go forward.

[riverdeep]

14. Maybe they shouldn't have voted in the Dufus in Chief then.

The majority gets to decide where to steer the ship and they decided the guy aiming for the iceberg is a terrific guy they'd like to have a beer with. We warned them this would happen, and they laughed and said we were over the top. Who's laughing now? Bush is. Cheney is. All the way to Paraguay.

Unfortunately, I'm sitting here in steerage along with all the mouthbreathers, waiting for the thud.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. It is very important to not let emotions lead us.

It is very important to focus upon a positive attitude regardless of context and context shifting.

[2speak]

17. Attitude

On one side is pessimism and on the other is optimism. Chicken Little or Rose Colored Glasses. Both of those are wrong. Somewhere in the middle is Reality.