"Fear will keep the local systems in line."

What is everyone so afraid of? Here I am "public enemy #1" because I am a public school teacher and make $70,000 INCLUDING benefits while the governor of New Jersey lets the taxes on people who earn over $400,000 to lapse. On the national scale, people keep trying to extend the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 but they want to CUT what I make because the state, which I WORK for, pays my health benefits. I have been paying into a pension plan that the state was supposed to match, but hasn't for 16 years. But people fear me because a small number of powerful politicians have told them that I am the reason why the economy tanked. It wasn't the major bank CEOs making millions of dollars a year who mislead investors in order to inflate the market so they could make more money. No, it was me and the other unionized public employees like police officers and fire fighters. Be afraid of them. They are the ones out to get your money.

And what about this new war on women? Why are the Republicans out to kill women? Did they not get enough dates in high school or something? Banning abortion does NOT reduce the number of abortions, it just makes them more dangerous leading to more deaths of women. There is a bill in Congress now that seeks to outlaw MISCARRIAGES. Seriously? Members of our government want to equate an unintentional, biological process that eliminates a fetus with murder? Do I need to say anything more? Let's shut down Planned Parenthood so that poor women with no health insurance can have absolutely nowhere to go for help should they get raped and become pregnant. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?

We live in fear of all sorts of things every day, but stop for a moment and ask yourself are you afraid of the right things? Or are you just listening to the loudest fear monger in the room?