Doc Stevens on Fear, Terrorism and Politics

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 6:50 AM Posted by Tondeleo Lee Thomas
Tondeleo: You know from my earlier postings that I have been getting Doc and whoever is visiting him to watch the national news and then to comment on it. I like to hear their simple insights about a world where they are outsiders. Doc has never voted, and I am not certain that he has a Social Security card. I do believe he has a drivers’ license, though.

We were discussing fear, politics and terrorism the other night while he was out working in his garage. I recorded some of the conversation. Here are excerpts.

Doc: Tondy, I hear a lot about this terrorism. I know thatBodyshop2 on 9-11 a long time ago, them guys crashed the jets into the Pentagon up there in DC and into a field in Pennsylvania somewhere, and into those buildings in New York. That was wrong. 

I know there is a lot of people around the world what hates America, too. But it ain’t for what the newspaper says it is for. They say that people hate us because we are free, and our women go to school, and we have a good life here in America. But I ain’t fallin’ for that one. 

Canada is free, and they got women in college, and have a good life. So does a lot of countries over there where you come from, Tondy. But not all those countries is goin’ over to where those terrorists live and bombin’ the mess out of them.

Mostly, over there, they ain’t much threat to us over here, except for somethin’ we musta done to them an’ their people what made them madder than I don’t know what. You can’t live your life scared of everyone and hatin’ everyone.  

And ain’t none of their governments wantin’ to invade America. We got the biggest army and marines and air force and navy in the world, and then even if they COULD get here, most of us is personally armed and would take them out one by one!  

If we’d bring our soldiers and ships and planes back to America, we could still pay all our soldiers and what not, but pay ‘em to work here and protect us right here. They could fix the roads and make hospitals or whatever we needed, instead of buildin’ those bases over there in them other countries. I think it’d be cheaper and better. 

I heard people on the TV say that hatin’ them people is bein’ a good American. I ain’t hatin’ nobody. Now if someone tries to break into my bungalow, and I am inside, I will send him to meet his Maker. But I ain’t gonna go down the road and blow somebody away because he MIGHT try to break in one day! That is crazy. America ain’t supposed to be crazy.

All these politicians go on about how religious they are. THEN THEThen they want to go hatin’ on gays an’ Mexicans and towelheads and poor people. Then, because of that, the other side starts hatin’ on religious people! It’s all about hate, Tondy! 

When I was a boy, we was supposed to hate the communists. It was the American thing to do. Once they went away, now we gotta hate towelheads. Well, what if I ain’t WANT to hate towelheads? What if they is being taught to hate me, and they don’t even know me? See what I mean?

No, I ain’t fallin’ for it. And I wish no one else fell for it. Then all the people could get along and work to make this a better place to live. That’s what America started off as, and that is what we need to learn how to do again.

I love America and I love the people here, even the ones that is greedy and hateful. They ain’t got the power over me to make me hate ‘em and I ain’t gonna give it to them. I am American and I believe everybody ought to have a chance to live they life free and to be left alone by the government. But we gotta pay our taxes to help the ones what cain’t work and to keep the roads fixed up.