>   A 17-year old girl is dragged from her home in Iraq and brutally stoned to death while neighbors and police watch yet fail to intervene. Participants and onlookers alike capture the event on their cell phones. Her crime was being a Kurd who fell in love with a Sunni. I am moved to write not about cultural differences or religious intolerance or the objectification of women, but instead to write about the power of fear.  
   The men who committed this heinous act, and the men and women who watched it occur, were all frightened. They have been raised on fear.  Fear of the state, fear of religious leaders, fear of an afterlife predicated upon reward and punishment, fear of their neighbors and, ultimately, fear of their own power. They have been raised on fear to keep them under control. People under control do not exercise their G-d given right to self-determination. They do not think for themselves. They do not pursue their dreams. They do not questions those with apparent power. And they do not upset the status quo.  
   I’m not just writing about Iraq, or Muslim countries, or the Middle East, or Third-World countries, or nations with oppressive regimes. I am writing about the world we live in, the reality we create over and over each day, regardless of the politics or culture in which we live when we act from fear.
   Our emotions are the fuel that drives the engine of our thoughts.  When we feel strongly about something, that feeling gives life and breadth to the idea or ideas that it supports. Fear is a powerful emotion. It’s high octane fuel. Controlling its flow is in the hands of a cartel as surely as is the flow of oil for our cars and our homes.  
   The cartel that controls the flow of fear is made up of every individual, every organization and every political entity that knows that if they make you frightened you are infinitely more likely to be controllable, manageable and effect their will.
   We were born with FREE will.  So let me propose another scenario. 
   There are only two emotions. LOVE and FEAR.  Every other emotional response that we humans are capable of stems from one or the other.  It’s that simple. So, you can fuel your ideas, and therefore, your actions, with fear or you can fuel them with love. The choice is yours. That’s what people who rule by power hope you forget. The CHOICE is YOURS. 
   I get so tired of hearing proponents of war say that we cannot bring troops home because the only way to peace is to “win” it and that it’s victory that ends wars. Peace ends wars. No war ever ended war. It may have temporarily frightened opposition into remission…but war inevitably returns. It may be years later or somewhere else on the planet…but since we know at the quantum level there is no time and also that we are all connected…war “later” or “somewhere else” is still war and still now.
   Let love be the fuel that motivates your thoughts. Let it motivate your responses. Reject those who market fear in the hope that it will drive you into submission to their view of the world and keep you from your own.
   A beautiful Kurdish girl and a Sunni boy fell in love. Love didn’t kill them, fear did.

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