This was published as a Guest Viewpoint on February 27, 2003, in the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, NY. Posted here on 3-3-03.

Thanks to Len Bjorkman for sharing this, and to the author for permission to post it here.

by Bob White

After living abroad for a number of years, I suppose it's only natural to undergo some sort of culture shock upon returning home, but what I have experienced is not what I expected.

During the years away, I kept abreast of the news by reading an American newspaper every day and maintaining correspondence with friends, family and colleagues. In the late 1990s I found myself called upon to explain to my European friends and neighbors why Americans were so exercised over the dalliances and frolics of their president, when frankly I couldn't understand it all myself.

In 2000 I was bewildered at having to defend an election process that had strikingly similar voting irregularities to the one in Central Africa that had recently been condemned by America. Shortly afterward, I was the target of a neighbor's anger when America thumbed its nose at environmental and peacekeeping accords that directly affected my adopted country.

Yet later in 2001, those same neighbors unhesitatingly shared their concern and empathy with my wife and me after the horrific events of Sept. 11. It was the act of a stranger that we particularly recall. While we were having coffee in a cafe, quietly discussing the news in our undisguised American accents, a man tentatively approached, apologized for interrupting, and said in an emotional voice, "I simply wanted to tell you how very sorry I am. I hope you didn't lose anyone." He turned and walked away before we could do much more than thank him.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House when I was a child. He was an admired and respected leader, irrespective of his extra-marital activities. In a speech to Congress in 1941, he laid out the "four essential human freedoms." The fourth he described as "freedom from fear -- which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor, anywhere in the world."

In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned, "The potential misuse of power by the only remaining superpower is as absolutely frightening as the corruption of absolute power."

And on the first anniversary of Sept. 11, President George W. Bush stated in 2002 that "Americans live in freedom and not in fear."

Having looked in on America from a distance and now seeing from close up, I don't believe Americans are enjoying freedoms as I remember them, but rather exist in a state of fear the likes of which I have not seen since I was a child living on the east coast in fear of German U-boat invaders and things that go boom in the night.

Life feels very tentative and uncertain. People seem to be living hesitantly as fear for personal safety comes in the form of frequent reminders from Homeland Security. Bogus claims of terrorist invasions come from the Justice Department. Talk of war is a daily issue, and the president threatens the people of, and speaks pejoratively about the leadership of, a sovereign nation.

When I was outside looking in, it was hard to understand where all the unanimity came from to support the sweeping changes in Washington. Now that I am home I see with eyes all too clearly that bipartisan, democratic responsibility to maintain checks and balances has broken down.

Lawmakers of both parties are more concerned about their own political futures than they are about the political future of their country. But what frightens me most is to see how the "absolute power" that President Eisenhower referred to has been relinquished to a handful of retreaded ideologues, all under the ruse of personal fear.

I had so hoped to come back to the America I was born in, and for which I had gone to war -- the America to which FDR boldly stated at his 1933 inauguration, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

Instead, it seems I have come back to an America obsessed with fear and paralyzed from advancing onward to the one true goal of world peace.

White is a retired Presbyterian minister and veteran living in Owego, New York.

Asked about the background that shapes his observations, he added: "I was with the United Reformed Church (UK) as minister of two multi-cultural/multi-racial, inner-city churches in Southwest London. From the PC(USA) viewpoint I was a mission specialist with the Worldwide Ministries Division. I am honorably retired from both the PC(USA) and URC(UK) who have graciously kept me on their rolls. After retirement I continued with my private practice as a professional counselor for about a year and moved from London to the West Country. We moved back to the U.S. and into this house last September 11th after nearly ten years in England. During that time we had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Continent, Ghana and South and East Australia."