When the dotcom bubble burst several years back, my wife and I were forced into a position where the Fear of homelessness and loss obscured our judgment, coercing us, after a time of struggle, into selling our house, and on the wretched heels of that loss we left this country, finding a new home in France, where we remained for about 5 years, and although we’d managed to put distance between ourselves and the experience that had triggered the Fear in our hearts, we found that we were unable to escape its shadow: it dogged our footsteps to the extent that we decided to turn and face it, to give it a final showdown, because we weren't afraid anymore—not since we discovered the identity of our true enemy, the author of the Fear.

And so now that we’ve returned to the continent and cradle of Fear, where media and government-generated terror reign supreme, we’re discovering that our story is a common one. Due to the mortgage loan crisis, in fact, it is more common than ever.

Ernestine Anderson, 4-time Grammy nominee, serves as a case in point, because this Jazz singer of international repute, who will be 80 in 2008, is herself now facing the imminent foreclosure on her home here in Seattle’s Central District, where she’s lived in the same house since 1946. If she isn’t able to raise at least $45,000 before June 30th (the clock is ticking, folks), her home will be put up for auction on July 11th. Yes, Ms. Anderson, Seattle’s own Jazz great, will be on the streets, rendered homeless by the Fear, unless enough people can come to her aid in time.

Luckily for Ms. Anderson (and the rest of us), help is on its way. Friends and sympathizers have set up a fund to assist her. In fact, anyone who wishes to help may donate funds to her cause, which has been set up at the Bank of America of Washington State under the name “The Ernestine Anderson Fund.”

I learned of Ms. Anderson’s plight via an email sent by a good friend who lives in Ms. Anderson’s neighborhood, but you can read all about it here in this article in Forbes.

The brutal economy in this country, characterized by the mortgage loan crisis, aggravated by the greedheads who run medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMO’s, wrecked by a criminally unjust and viciously stupid war, as well as by those seeking to profit from it (the lowest species of scum in the world today), continues to engender the Fear ignited in the hearts and minds of Americans, a Fear that is also stoked by the endless media obsession with terror and tragedy as well as by a government that launches innumerable psychological and physical wars on so-called evil empires within and without this country, day in and day out, manipulating the populace to the point that all they want is to escape via SUV’s and fast motorcycles, television, sports, shopping, whatever, but the point is that all of it serves to distract people from what the government is really up to; since no one pays attention, being too afraid to, the government happily bushwacks (pun intended with malice aforethought) us all, getting away scott-free with its nefarious activities, and the Fear rages on.

If you want to think straight, to free yourself from the psychic bonds of media terror, then it’s time to say “No!” to television news that manipulates its viewers by terrorizing them with stories that generate more income for their sponsors but more importantly terror in our hearts and minds, and violence in the streets, all of it serving as a smokescreen that cloaks our real nemesis in secrecy, like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. It’s time to recognize who our enemies truly are; it’s time to face the Fear.

One way to fight the Fear is to help others, if you can, that is. One person who needs help right now is Ernestine Anderson, and anybody who’s ever appreciated her artistry ought to help, if they can.

But she’s not the only one. And even if she does receive enough assistance to save her home, then what about all the others? And what about this climate of Fear?

We’ve got to take it one step at a time, like a baby learning to walk. The first thing is to recognize the Fear, and the next is to face it. Once you face it, the rest will follow. It may take a long time, but it all begins now.

The first step to take, if you can manage it, is to help others who’ve been kicked down by the Fear, because if you don't, the next to be kicked just might be you. And what are you gonna do when the boot's got you groveling on your knees? If you don't help now, who's gonna help you later? You can start with the Ernestine Anderson Fund at the Bank of America.

But don’t stop there.

Ernestine Anderson herself has never stopped; she tours to this day. And below in today's vid, you can see her expressing the protest spirit of the '60's, which promoted the kind of consciousness we're in sore and dire need of today, when, as in the 60's, the Fear is raging through our cities, goaded on by warmongers and greedheads galore. Clearly, Ms. Anderson never hesitated to speak out on the behalf of others, and so now others need to speak on her behalf, and I am one of them, being myself another child of Fear. Bravo, Ernestine.