It shapes behavior, influences choices, and narrows imagination. Institutions built on fear may achieve compliance, but they rarely cultivate transformation.
The opposite of fear is not simply courage.
It is trust.
What kind of society do we build when fear becomes policy?
William Eric Waters is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, essayist, educator, criminal-justice scholar, and nonprofit executive. Writing as William E. Waters, he is the author of the epic poem Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass and three poetry collections: Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Feminine Mystique, and The Black Blood of Poetry. Under the pen name Easy Waters, he is the author of the novel Streets of Rage and the short-story collection Conundrums: Stories of Law & Justice. His work explores Black history, race, law, punishment, institutional power, accountability, redemption, and resilience.
Amen, my brother, amen! This quote and commentary made me think of Howard Thurman’s 1949 classic text, Jesus and The Disinherited. In the second chapter, Thurman describes fear as one of the “persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited.” In the Jim Crow south, it was not only the actual violence, but merely the fear of lynching that often kept Black people from resisting. Yes! Building a society that overcomes this requires not just courage, but trust as well. A deep trust that there are enough people of good will in leadership positions who are sincerely committed to building a society based on equality and justice.
William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters 
Amen, my brother, amen! This quote and commentary made me think of Howard Thurman’s 1949 classic text, Jesus and The Disinherited. In the second chapter, Thurman describes fear as one of the “persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited.” In the Jim Crow south, it was not only the actual violence, but merely the fear of lynching that often kept Black people from resisting. Yes! Building a society that overcomes this requires not just courage, but trust as well. A deep trust that there are enough people of good will in leadership positions who are sincerely committed to building a society based on equality and justice.
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