"From my understanding people get better when they start to understand that, they are valuable And they not valuable because they got a whole lot of money or cause somebody, think they sexy but they valuable caause they been created by God And God, makes you valuable And whether or not you, recognize that value is one thing You got a lot of socities and governments tryin to be God, wishin that they were God They wanna create satellites and cameras everywhere and make you think they got the all-seein eye I guess The Last Poets wasn't, too far off when they said that certain people got a God Complex I believe it's true I don't get phased out by none of that, none of that helicopters, the TV screens, the newscasters, the.. satellite dishes...they just, wishin They can't really never do that When they tell me to fear they law When they tell me to try to have some fear in my heart behind the things that they do This is what I think in my mind And this is what I say to them And this is what I'm sayin, to you check it..." 

   -Mos Def "Fear Not of Men"

When did we all become so afraid? From an anthropological standpoint, of course, to curb the daily danger and fear of a single man vs. a deadly nature, humans banded together, first as hunter-gatherer tribes and later as societies for security. Security from natural disasters, from famine, from illness, and especially from those everyday dangers that can creep up on us when our backs are turned. With another, or many others, we are able to figuratively and subjectively put eyes on the back of our heads.

Yet, this notion escalated. Encampments turned to towns, towns to villages, and villages became metropolitans. A lean-to became a cabin and a cabin became a castle, a castle needed a moat, and a moat needed a guard. Slowly, but painfully sure enough, our societies began to entice fear, rather than placate it.

So what do we have today? We have terror levels. We have swine/west nile/mad cow flu, which is hoping and waiting to uncover a new mutation and sneak in and decimate the human population. Our news tells us to fear cities, for their high crime rates, and to lock ourselves into suburbs to escape the villains of metropolita. Often the fear of said "villains," is rooted in a old and devious fear, as those criminals who un-proportionately fill our prisons have a skin color that is of the vast minority. Yet, we are inscribed that the more we put in prion, the less we will have "to fear."

At what point did we all decide that there was so much to fear in this world?

Many may have recently heard of the string of earthquakes in American Samoa and Vanuatu, as well as a few in Indonesia. In the South Pacific, such earthquakes can often be the source of alarm, due to the incursion of tsunamis in a ocean based quake.

This Thursday, as I was sitting eating lunch with my staff at Our Lady Of Mercy Catholic High school, a parent came in reporting she had heard Pohnpei was on Tsunami watch. From my school I can see ocean on 3 sides, and as the word tsu met the word nami my stomach began to lurch. Hoping to absorb the norm of the people here I looked around, and saw nothing but smiling faces. As seconds passed, most of the staff began to laugh at the notion, and make jokes about a tsunami. Not only were we predominately safe due to our barrier reef, but the notion of going berserk on a Pacific Island over a giant wave you had no control over carried no resignation with those in the room.

Our maintenance man coyly remarked to me with a smile, "Eat up Luke, this may be your last meal before the Tsunami hits," laughing, as he packed up his food, got his weed-wacker and continued the work he had been doing before lunch. I did precisely that, and following suit, held class and continued my day without the idea of the ocean, or its waves, entering my thoughts once.

Pohnpeians, and I feel Micronesians in general, have escaped the fear-monger that plagues us as Westerners. Rather than fight, toil, and create whatever means we can to control nature, it is far simpler and easier to allow nature to run its course. Some may call this foolish, some may call it unrealistic, but I call it faith.

What it boils down to is a lack of faith. If you want to call it in God, in Nature, in spirit, in love, it is of no consequence. What can not be argued is the ever-present loss of faith in something outside ourselves in Western culture. Our fear is rooted in this. Without control, we fear, when in actuality we are as minute, as insignificant, and as finite as a simple flake of sand to a rouge wave. We need to give up control, and it is only through this release that we can escape our fears, and hope to find love and happiness, and mot importantly peace, with ourselves, our families, our friends, our jobs, and our world.