America the fearful

Is there a reason why America has one of the highest murder rates in the world? Michael Moore’s 2002 documentary, “Bowling for Columbine,” asks the question: why do Americans kill each other at such a monumental rate? The answer is fear. Americans live their lives in a perpetual state of fear. It’s amazing since crime rates are actually on the decline; however, fear is on the rise. After September ll Americans are buying more guns and more ammunition. We’re buying home security systems left and right. If crime is declining why are we still afraid. If you watch the evening news, the top stories usually involve some sort of violent crime. The media seems to be focusing only on the negative with stories about the latest murders or the latest health crisis or the latest news on Americans’ health disorders or why Americans need to look over their shoulders because the “Evil Doers” are out to get us. Are we that much more in danger than people in the rest of the world? If that’s the case, then why is it that more terrorist attacks have been committed on U.S. soil by Americans than by the “Evil Doers?” The chances of regular Joe Shmo American being killed by terrorists is astronomically smaller than the chances of him being killed by his neighbor. Americans should be more afraid of themselves than of of terrorists. It’s sad. In Canada most people don’t even lock their doors. They aren’t afraid of their neighbors. They only have a few dozen deaths from fire arms a year compared to our more than 10,000 a year. Some Americans say that it’s because we have more guns. We don’t. Canadians have many guns. More than half the families in Canada own guns. Maybe it’s because we have more poverty than them. Canada’s poverty level is much higher than the U.S.’s. What about violent movies? Nope, they love a good gore fest. So why is it that they don’t go around killing each other the way we do? Is the answer to all these questions the media? Or maybe it’s a combination of many different factors: media, poverty, bad health care, a government perpetuating fear as a method of control, big business using fear as a profit making scheme. America needs a radical change in structure and thinking. In the meantime I think I’ll move to Canada.