Plenty to Fear?

March 24, 2009

Spiritually Speaking

Plenty to Fear?

I am putting pen to paper on Tuesday,
March 24, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. A few
of today's headlines are:

-More Madoff Assets Found
-Biggest Rally on Stock Market in 4 Months
-Furor over AIG Bonuses
-$50 Million of AIG Bonuses Returned
-$9 Trillion Debt in our Future?
-NATO Troops Kill Afghan Driver
-North Korea Reasserts Right to Satellite Launch
-Youth in Court over Killing in Northern Ireland
-Kurdish Rebels Won't Stop Fighting in Iraq
-Missing Woman's Body Found in Antwerp, NY
-Health Insurance Squeezes U.S. workers
-What We're Splurging and Skimping on Right Now
-Blizzard Shuts Down Parts
of Wyoming and South Dakota

Large corporations are laying people off daily.
Small businesses are floundering. Unemployment is
rising. The fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan continues
to keep our troops in harm's way. The coffins
continue to come home. Closer to our communities,
crimes and violence pepper the evening local news.
Granted, there are glimmers of hope - the bonuses
being voluntarily returned by AIG employees and the
rally in the Stock Market, but for the average family
trying to make ends meet - often with one or both
parents unemployed or underemployed; for those
who are watching their retirement nest eggs shrinking,
their investments dwindling, or even
disappearing all together - along with those who
feel the pinch more intensely each day as they fall
further and further behind on fixed incomes- the future
can look bleak and frighteningly hopeless.

Many people draw comparisons to
The Great Depression. Will this or won't it turn
into a second Great Depression? There are similarities:
unequal distribution of wealth, excessive speculation
on the Stock Market, and bank failures. While not
exactly the same causes and/or consequences, it is
similar enough to raise fear and anxiety. Hopefully, we
can glean good knowledge from those Depression years
and thereby avoid the most dire consequences of the thirties
as we face today's economic crisis.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt set in motion the New Deal.
It's measures put homeless, hungry, unemployed men
to work on construction and conservation projects across
the country. There are many alive today who can point
with pride to projects they helped to build or forests they
helped to plant. Eleanor Roosevelt, frustrated because the New
Deal did not help women, set in motion her own New
Deal for the homeless, hungry and unemployed women
of the day. Both Roosevelt's received plenty of criticism for
their attempts to restart the economy. Until their measures
kicked in and the economy turned around, there was
a high level of fear and anxiety for the average American,
suspicion and skepticism about the President's actions
and our country's future.

It took FDR four hours to draft his 1933 inaugural speech.
His words offer as much encouragement and support
today as they did when he first spoke them.

This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive
and will prosper. Let me assert my firm belief that the
only thing we have to fear is fear itself- nameless,
unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses
needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

H.W. Brands, author of A Traitor to His Class:
The Privileged and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
observes:

Before long this line about having to fear only fear would be hailed
as a landmark of presidential rhetoric. At the time it didn't seem so...
not the least since it was patently false. Americans had plenty to fear....

By 1933, one quarter of all American workers were unemployed.
Thousands were underemployed. Five thousand banks had failed.
The Stock Market had lost 75% of its value. A half million home
mortgages had been foreclosed. Without property taxes, municipal
governments and even public schools were ailing and failing. Many
staunchly refused any government relief. Those who accepted it found
it was, at best, inadequate but better than nothing. A tide of
homelessness swept the country. The birth rate fell by one third.

Americans had plenty to fear starting with massive unemployment,
widespread hunger and a collapsing financial system. Yet coming from
one who had just survived an assassination attempt following a decade
long battle with polio, it struck a reassuring tone.

Roosevelt's reassurance about fear did not make the headlines the next
day. His attack on the money changers of the day did. People wanted
to know that the President was taking action. They needed to see justice
coming to the greedy ones who had created the crisis. The newspapers
read:

Roosevelt assailed the unscupulous money changers of Wall Street
as those responsible for America's plight. He said, "Plenty is at our
doorstep but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

...Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple
of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.
The measure of that restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social
values more noble than mere monetary profit. ...Our greatest primary task
is to put people to work."

Today his words about the only fear we have to fear being fear itself
is what we remember. Good words. Sound sentiment. But we,
like those who lived through the Depression era, have plenty to fear.
Unfortunately fear will paralyze us in the past, or at best in the present
moment. Or we can face that fear and find our faith. Faith that we can
work for good, faith that the good we do will make a difference - that
is what will move us into the future with hope. Fear holds hope hostage.
Faith frees it. Fear hoards things, makes us look out only for ourselves.
Faith frees us to share whatever we have, committed to improving the quality
of life for as many as possible - not just for ourselves.

President Roosevelt appealed to the people for a unified
support of his leadership. He knew that there would be
criticism no matter what he tried to do. He also recognized
the dire needs of the nation and did what he could to
alleviate the homelessness, hunger and unemployment.
He learned from his own mistakes. We can look back and
learn - from what worked and what did not.

We must face our fear, then wade through it and climb out
of fear to stand on the solid ground of hope, committed to
walking forward with faith - faith that we can do good, that
the good we do will make a difference - and even the mistakes
we make will provide valuable learning - for us - for all future
generations.

Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the
moment. And yet our distress comes from no failure
of substance. We are stricken by no plagues of locusts.
Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered,
because they believed and were not afraid, we have still
much to be thankful for. ...Plenty is at our
doorstep but a generous use of it languishes in the
very sight of the supply.