Monday, December 28, 2015

I have Negotiated in Nearly 50 Countries - The Most Dangerous? The Place Where I was Kidnapped



Even though I once negotiated in nearly 50 countries over 30 years -- including in SYRIA for a Texas mom whose 12 year old daughter was taken without her consent to a city near Damascus -- the most dangerous place I have encountered was right here in the USA. 

Despite flying into coups and traveling around war zones (documented in my book “Better Times Ahead April Fool”), the only crime that ever happened to me was when I was personally kidnapped in East Texas, by a white man. Ironically, I even knew the person, which makes it even more strange.


As an American who has negotiated in nearly 50 countries, people often have asked me “what is the most dangerous country you have been in?”  I have to say …the USA.  Why is that? 

Why is that we fear a foreign terrorist when our own domestic terror is so much GREATER?  

Even murder of little kids at schools like Sandy Hook hasn’t bothered America as much as two losers in California killing co-workers. The term “postal” is old hat in America.  (And if its true that a co-worker did that “My religion is better than yours” crap, then I can see why they became the targets instead of a mall. The whole problem is the “My religion is better than yours” crap going on by all sides).

In 2015, 14 people were horribly gunned down by two Muslims and people lost their minds. That demeans the deaths of the other 30,000 people who were gunned down in the U.S. by our own killers with easy access to the most lethal of firepower with the minimum of thought.

We should not ignore those 30,000 deaths as less important.  ISIS cannot bring us down any more than Al Capone or the drug lords could bring down our nation.  We can fear ourselves to death and hide under our desks, but ISIS is not an existential threat.

Planetary suicide from runaway carbon emissions is. A dead planet doesn’t have an economy. So on the priority scale Climate change should rank No. 1 and terrorism No. 3 after our economy (No. 2).

We need to elect a president in 2016 that doesn’t make the situation worse. We need a Congress to match. Under those standards, Mr. Trump is disqualified to be president but would make a great Nazi bully-sexist-racist-disgusting-rich-bastard-that-is-screwing-people-like-his-supporters!

Stay tuned…
Michael Fjetland
Author, Better Times AheadApril Fool
Twitter
@Fjet2020

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