[Peace] fearful fumors, I mean rumors

[parenti susan rose]

Yesterday, shopping at Meijers, I met a man who I've known from Carle
Medical Supply, a man in his early 30's who is a self-proclaimed
Christian, and a musician when he's off work.

He took me aside, away from his wife and baby, and told me that he's heard
from his Christian journal, and Christian radio station, that there are
100,000 Chinese soldiers lined up across the border in Mexico, ready to
invade the United states.

He was terrified. I've known him for years, as he delivered medical
supplies to my house, and he's not a nut. A believer, yes, but mentally
unstable, no.

When I told him that the situation is reversed---that it's the US that has
soldiers ready to invade all the other countries--he readily agreed, and
said that the Christian newspapers say that we will have World War III
any day now, that Bush is a Mason, and that the Mason's are getting ready
for the apocalypse.

So even the realization that the US is a(the)belligerent force, feeds
into the general terror. Perhaps, like certain microphones which can't
tell the direction of the sound but only that it occurs, fear doesn't
recognize from where it comes, only that it's there.(On an individual
level, the occurrence of panic attacks attests to this).

Our neighbors haven't been politicized, they've been terrified.
Susan