Baracknaphobia

By D.L. Hammack

For every human being, life, along with its joys and pleasures, is also full of fears and phobias. For me, standing on a tall rock outcropping, peering between my toes at the cavernous abyss below, causes immediate panic with weak kneed, spine tingling, wet-your-pants fear. They call it acrophobia.

Others have fears of spiders or snakes, or perhaps tight spaces. The world has recognized these fears by giving those names like arachnophobia, ophidiophobia, or claustrophobia.

As the world evolves and new fears arise, it is only natural for us to recognize these fears and continue to grant them the names they deserve in an attempt to better label the fear, and then deal with that fear and the resultant anxieties.

As 2012 nears I have a recurring fear that is so powerful that it finds me praying for soiled pants via a cliff dive or an enclosed coffin teeming with spiders. The dominant fear is such that I have found need to name it; to give it a label: Baracknaphobia. Each time the man who leads what used to be the most powerful nation in the world goes on television, my stomach turns. When he speaks, I convulse at the sound of his conceited, self motivated, lies. When he travels abroad, I cower in embarrassment. When his arrogant, condescending tone reverberates in the halls where true leaders like Reagan stood, I cringe.

Baracknaphobia is the inescapable fear that this country will be subjected to another four years of ideological, radical, in-your-face narcissistic control. Baracknaphobia is also the reluctance to call the man out for his lies, because of the color of his skin. Baracknaphobia is fear of the demon that could destroy America.

God instilled in man an innate ability to experience "gut feel" and recognize danger. The "gut" instinct is given so man can avert that danger and carry him to safer locales. If one is afraid of snakes, then one simply avoids traipsing in areas that are known for snakes. But what if the snake is in the White House and there's no way to avoid dealing with it each and every day of your life? My God-given "gut" feel tells me that the reality that shadows this fear will be far worse than a tumble in a snake pit. The lasting effects of evil will forever scar a nation that out of political correctness voted a monster into the White House.

We have labeled the fear. Now let us recognize that the resultant anxieties associated with this fear will be forever lasting and forever inescapable. The only way to eliminate the fear is to vote with your gut and send this man and his minions packing (czars and all).

2012 will, by our choice and, regardless of the outcome, be a year in the history of the world that will forever be remembered. Shall we be remembered as those who stood and faced fear or those who cowered on our knees overwhelmed by PC?