by Mugurel Stejar

Created on: April 17, 2008

Looked upon in historical perspective leaders get a new image which might or might have not been accurate during their times, but which is always greater than reality years later. FDR was one of the historical figures which is famous for so many things. It is very difficult to single him out for one characteristic in particular. Over all his achievements are greater than reality itself, however he had a lot of critics during his life and ever since. But if history is to remember him for ever, it will be only for one reason: FDR managed to take a nation totally demoralized by hard economic times, scared by the next day, energize it and give people hope. His solution to the myriad of problems the country and the people faced at that time was just an advice: "fear nothing but fear itself". And when America managed to get rid of its fear of fear, America was able to accomplish the impossible.

Today, we need more than any other time in our history a person to inspire us to get rid of our fear of "fear itself".

For a few years we are living in fear for all kind of dangers real or fantasies and hoping to stay safe we turn into total idiots lacking any basic common sense.

No I don't want to be perceived as a person who does not think that we should recognize the possible danger surrounding us, but inventing one just to move the economy or to keep the population under control is completely irrational.

After September 11, we went into a kind of paranoia whose accomplishments were nothing more than creating government jobs and turning a serious matter into a laughable nonsense...

I remember that right after September 11, I was in Chicago at the Water tower restaurant having dinner at the Life Line. It was a popular hang out for tourists and downtown workers. I remember that at one point in time, a family of Middle Eastern origins came to have lunch there. It was the father, mother and two children both around five or six years of age. No one would have noticed them if it were not for their typical Arabic garb which made them stand out. And to make matter worse, at a table in a corner I noticed two young Muslim woman having lunch and talking. Being around the time when a woman suicide bomber detonated her self at a check point in Iraq, all of a sudden I was caught by an irrational fear. My first thoughts were that they did not know each other and it was a simple coincidence. If I were home in Milwaukee I could have at that time be suspicious, but in Chicago? Not even the sight

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