A Quick Thought on Fear.
At the corner of Oakwood Ave. and East Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a house marked on Google Maps. For most of the year, it’s a quaint, two-story mint-green home shaded by oak trees, with a big southern porch made for sweet tea sipping.
But this time of year, that changes, and it becomes a house of horrors. With goblins and ghouls, skeletons and witches, and even a Gremlin or two, it’s not for the faint of heart. If you’re more of a Hocus Pocus viewer on Halloween as opposed to Friday the 13th, you might want to steer clear. We’ll come back to this house in just a moment.
On a day when we all get just a little spooky, fear is on the mind. Ten days ago, Chapman University released its 11th annual Survey of American Fears. And for the tenth consecutive year, the number one thing Americans are most afraid of is corrupt government officials. Number two on the list was “Someone I Love Becoming Seriously Ill”. Sorry, Grandma, but the State Auditor skimming off the top takes top billing.
A whopping 69.1% of Americans ranked this as their top fear. Dr. Steven Pfaff, Professor of Sociology at Chapman, observes in the study, “Majorities of Americans across partisan lines share this fear, which our analysis suggests stems from their perception that money has distorted the political process, and that powerful and resourceful interests achieve their goals even at the expense of the public good and voter preferences.”
I guess there is something the left and right can agree on in 2025 after all. I’m not sure there is a silver lining in the data. And I’m also not sure we should ever have a lot of trust in government officials; a skeptical voter can be a well-informed voter.
Fear can be a motivator or a paralytic. Heading into Tuesday’s elections, I hope people use fear as a motivator because things might be bad, and instead of fearing those in charge, we can vote them out. We’re still a republic for the time being.
Oh, the Halloween House, I mentioned before? Tonight, on Halloween, it will host a canned food drive for college students in need. Even on the scariest day of the year, and during one of the scariest times for so many, communities are stepping up. You can too.
See you soon.
