It’s no time to fear change

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the newspaper business, we are familiar with the belief that all news is bad news. There are a lot of reasons readers might take that sentiment to heart, right now. The war in Iraq is dragging on with no clear solution in sight. Gas and food prices continue to rise and economic news is grim.

It’s no wonder the Associated Press reports that national morale is low. Only 14 percent to 17 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction, according to June’s poll. People are worried. They don’t know what is going to happen and how they are going to handle it. Uncertainty and fear are overwhelming emotions that blind us to possible solutions and rob us of perspective.

In its story, the AP interviewed a woman who had lived through World War II. Ruth Townsend, 82, Orlando, Fla., explained that the country had been through much more challenging times and she is worried Americans have become too attached to things.

A local reader made a similar observation [on The Journal’s comment phone line]. The caller pointed out that this country has been through, “complete market collapse, home and farm foreclosures, dust storms, grasshopper plagues and droughts and World War II coming.”

In the past, times of turmoil also have been times of change. Americans have a tendency to work for solutions.

We are not denying that change is hard. People become very attached to their lifestyles. In the end, though, who we are is not what we drive or how many times we go out to dinner.

We can’t claim to know what is going to happen, either. Perhaps life demands a little faith in ourselves, our families and our community.

This could be an opportunity for us to reconsider what we value and how we use resources. It’s a chance for us to help each other out. It’s time to be thankful for people in our lives who are of real value.

In the end, there are some things we will never be able to directly control. We do have control over our attitudes, though. We can decide whether we wait in fear or get to work.