What are you afraid of? I don't mean that you necessarily worry about this

[raccoon]

24/7, but just...what are your fears?

Me: Financial insecurity

Terminal or debilitating illness

[aquart]

1. Those plus a tsunami in Manhattan and world famine.

Also West Coast radioactive contamination from Fukushima.

And dealing with anything that requires me to fill out a form.

Yah, that about covers it.

And, nervous nellie that I am, terrorism still isn't on my list.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Dying before the bigots allow my family equal rights

I want to leave them a living like the President's 'sanctified' straight couples automatically do.

[monmouth]

3. All of the above and the Kardashians...n/t

[Burma Jones]

4. My three Kids' future, flying and recurring back problems

I do what I can to reduce these three fears.

The kids are being raised to be kind, to work hard, to earn good grades and to be thankful for our exceptionally good fortune. But, the USA they're going to inherit looks more and more like a selfish and mean spirited place full of people with no self awareness.

I drink, heavily, before boarding a plane.

I've just lost 50 pounds and keep up with my back exercises.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. Rising Fascism

In America from across the aisle.

[raccoon]

8. That one--definitely! nt

[frazzled]

6. Getting Alzheimer's or dementia some day

I know I won't know or care if I get it, but it wreaks such a toll on family members that I fear this desperately. I really don't want to lose my ability to think. My knees can go, my figure and heart and whatever else, but please, don't let me lose my mind!

Other than that, I fear wasps.

[treestar]

7. I think the two you mentioned are the most rational ones

anyone should have - and it follows from that: Republican victories in any election.

[Odin2005]

9. My paycheck and SSI check not keeping up with inflation.

[HappyMe]

10. A teapublican president.

Getting sick again.

[kctim]

11. The nuts who believe

socialism or facism are lurking right around the corner because things aren't going exactly the way they want it to go.

[saras]

12. Stupid people - any other object of fear can be coped with, even death.

But there is no moral, socially acceptable way of dealing with the stupid. (Note that I did NOT say there is no way to deal with the stupid.) They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

[firehorse]

13. Afraid of being old in the future: no money, homeless, bad health, no family, ...

being vulnerable and helpless, old and sick with no support network. The idea of social security gave me some hope for survival when I'm too old to work. As it is now I'm self employed and live month to month, with only enough savings to get me through about 6 months.

[Louisiana1976]

14. Having to refer to President Perry

[Whisp]

15. those things and what my kid will be having to deal with in the future

climate change wise, safe food, etc.,

all the things we took for granted when we were young.

[Claudia Jones]

16. the enemy within the gates

For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor - other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.

The brave and clear platform adopted by this convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.

http://www.austincc.edu/lpatrick/his2341/fdr36acceptancespeech.htm

[Ohio Joe]

17. Guacamole

Everyone seems to want me to like it but I really hate the shit and it seems people always try to slip it into something I might eat. I have to look out for it all the time.

[femmocrat]

18. A Rick Perry presidency.

:scared: He scares the crap out of me.