Americans, who are struggling just to survive, are being tricked by banking, insurance, and investment portfolio executives who are wearing Cheshire cat grins while they continue to reap in millions in taxpayer-provided bonuses for being incompetent and inefficient.
The fear instilled by the 9/11 attacks led Americans to willingly yield some of their Constitutional rights, while pretending that such laws as the PATRIOT Act would protect them from further harm. The fear of the past eight years that has led to the theft of six Constitutional amendments is scarier than any costumed pirate.
Frightening is also having a mass media that prefer to do play-by-play reporting on the latest celebrity break-up or coupling, real or imagined, rather than looking into critical social issues.
Indeed, ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night don't stand a chance of competing on Halloween with the fear that now exists in our country.
[Walter Brasch's latest books are Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture and Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, labor union staff grievance officer, college instructor of labor studies/labor history, and Red Cross national disaster family services specialist. The Brasches are syndicated columnists. You may contact them through http://www.walterbrasch.com]
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