Fear is in the eye of the beholder....

This morning I was outside hanging up Farah's washing on the washing line, when a man (a black man) was at the driveway gate, the gate was closed securely and can only be opened by remote. He signaled my attention and when I saw him my heart started beating really fast and I immediately became overcome with fear and my instincts told me to press the panic button. Me, trying not to show that I’m scared approached the gate as the man was holding out a card or something for me to read. When I got to him on the card it stated that he was deaf and that he’s asking for a donation. Phew…what a relief, I thought he was going to rob me!


Later when I was safely in the house, I thought about what happened and I realized how unjust my reaction was. What has this country done to us or rather me? Why do I live in fear? I am not afraid of dying, that is inevitable but I must admit that I do fear being a victim of a senseless crime. The type of crimes’ one reads and hears about every day in the media, the type of crimes that gets emailed to me on a daily basis from our local neighborhood watch. I was a victim of a house breaking a few years ago and I was held with a knife while all my treasured belongings that I worked really hard to gain were taken away from me…is it because of that incident that I sometimes think the worst of people? People who are merely asking for a donation at your door, People who are just standing around in front of a store, People who are just trying to assist you with parking your car, People who are begging at the stop streets etc etc? OR do others also live in fear and wonder when it’s going to be their turn to be victimized in this crime-ridden country? I don’t know but all I can say is….I’m terribly sorry Mr “deafman”, I didn’t mean to be so prejudice.