#9

Fear 

Amelia Wurzburg

Fear is innate. It is a basic emotional response, and survival mechanism that every human being is hardwired to know. Fear is one thing we all have in common, regardless of how or where we live on this planet. 

Once I had a dream that I was at the grocery store with my mother, when another shopper came running towards us, screaming that there were men outside, with guns. Everyone began to herd towards the back exit, where the loading dock was, but somehow, we couldn’t seem to move fast enough, and I could hear screams and gunshots. Suddenly, men wearing masks and carrying machine guns burst through the front doors, and at that moment, the herd of people pushed my mother away from me. I woke up shaking and gasping for air as I fumbled to turn on my lamp and bring myself back to reality. 

I was recently reminded of this dream while watching a documentary about the genocide happening now in Darfur. I remember thinking about the fear I felt in my dream, and how alarmingly real it seemed, both in my mind and body. But after some reflection, I realized that I could not remember ever feeling that sheer terror in waking life. 

As someone who is privileged with a relative degree of comfort and stability, it is difficult to comprehend living every day in fear. There are women, men, children, and elderly people living in Darfur who feel terror everyday. On any day, there is the chance of feeling the special kind of fear that can only be inspired by the knowledge that one is going to die, immediately and violently. They experience immobilizing terror in real time; there is no waking up, and there is no comforting light to switch on. The documentary I saw showed the image of a little girl, sprawled face first in the dirt, her colorful skirt fanned around her. I imagined the fear she felt before she died. Did she scream for her mother, as I did in my dream?

Every person should be able to live without fear. It is a privilege to live without the constant shadow of terror, but it is also a basic human right. All human beings should be entitled to work, sleep and play without fear for our survival or the survival of our loved ones. Perhaps in this situation the innate human ability to feel fear can act not just as a survival mechanism for those who are persecuted, but also as a reminder to those of us who live in safety. We should all pause for a moment, and think about the most fear we have ever felt, and consider what we can do for the people who feel that fear every single day. 

If you would like to print this out to distribute throughout your town, please include the following message: After the Holocaust the U.N. said "Never Again," would they let such an atrocity happen, but since then there have been Genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and now Darfur. This piece is part of an anti Genocide, anti Ignorance project called Open Eyes. To learn more and contribute, visit www.openeyesforgenocide.blogspot.com