Have you been scared today?

Not wanted to go out on the streets after the sun goes down because of all the drunk drivers menacing the roads? Called your doctor about the horrible new disease you might have because there's a new drug out on the market that will save you? Had trouble going, going, going on with your life because someone you don't know might go crazy and try to snuff you out? Pulled those curtains tight, chained the kids to the radiator and stayed glued to the local news for Amber Alerts because there are so many pedophiles living in the same neighborhood, city or nation as you?

Are you afraid some unnamed, unknown bad thing might happen to you?

Well, I'm here to tell you there's no hope. You could take a pill, but it won't make you live forever. You can stay away from airports and planes will still crash. You can cancel your vacation to that tropical location and the evil weather gods will still find you in the middle of the country. And, yes, terrorists will attack again. They will bomb all the Starbucks. They will derail the trains. They will blow up the bridges. They will kill you.

Or not.

The chances aren't quantifiable (even for insurance companies), so you've got a choice. You can worry about it. You can look twice at people who seem different from you. You can get a can of mace. You can clutch your purse. You can call for a fence on the border. And you can tell your congressperson to spend all the money in the world to keep your little patch of green grass safe.

But it's all a magic trick. A slight of hand. The only thing that disappears is money.

Threats are cheap, but protecting everyone and everything in the world from bad things is infinitely expensive. And pretty much useless.

If I just told you that, most likely, nothing cataclysmic will ever happen to you, would it make you feel better? Or should we spend a crapload of money and then tell you it'll probably happen anyway. What would make you feel better?

I'm afraid we're all afraid and it's making me more afraid than ever.

Like that house security commercial where a family just moved into a new house, and, that same night, someone breaks into the back door. Good thing they had that security system installed, huh? Good thing they were sensible enough to be afraid. Or maybe they should've locked their back door at night.

Can you buy insurance against your own stupidity. Yep, but it'll cost ya!

Up in arms about foreign countries owning large chunks of American companies? We should really be afraid of that, because if they own our stuff we'll have to pay them rent on it. Or...what? They'll take our country away? Suddenly America will be called something else--like corporate names of sports stadiums? Trust me, there's no profit in slaughtering your cash cow.

And you know how Iran wants to blow up the Western World and control all the oil? Well, if they blow us up, oil won't really mean so much, will it? They will, in fact, devalue oil because suddenly we won't be using it anymore. So which one is it? They want to control oil to make money or they want to blow us up and cause Armageddon? You can't have both. You either end civilization or you make some money. Reagan and the Russians had the same choices, and they went with the money.

So why is the most powerful country afraid its own shadow? Afraid of everyone else in the world? What's the point of being on top if you keep getting scared of all the little mice scurrying around your ankles? Can't we be bold and metaphorical men about this? Can't we fix the problems at home and let the rest of the world fix their problems? We gotta be dad, mom, policeman, criminal, scared little girl and big bad bully all rolled into one? United States of the Schizophrenic Manic-Depressive Americans. No wonder everyone's so pissed at us.

Why is it we keep falling for all these scare tactics our "leaders" keep pushing down our throats? So they can keep their jobs telling us how afraid we should be?

All the safety measures in the world will never save us from our fears. But we can choose to face and overcome them.

Matt Worley is afraid he's going to have to get a job someday.