2006 — 6th Grade 5th Place

Aman Bal, Michigan

Fear. A principal we are all familiar with. A perspective of a situation that the world has used a countless number of times to help with any problem, however small, and retain the fragile balance of emotions our way of life depends on. Fear is the reason; the reliance that ensures the guard on terrorism, war, and a host of other things is justifiable. Fear is plausible. Plausible in the sense of the ideal, person, or act that we fear, whether it be the fear that one man will rule the earth, that god will not accept us in heaven, or that sacrificing our lives for religion is right, however uncultured and primitive.

In the eternal conflict regarding the influential power of fear and hope, I have chosen ear only because without it, the civilized world as we know it would collapse. Civilizations would cave in. and people would be driven to suicide and murder only because the Monarchs and Prime ministers who pledged to keep their own country in order did not fear rebellion, poverty, and starvation. They would not fear laws being broken, for they would have no laws. They would not fear war, global warming, and the extinction of animals across their territory because they would not care. All of this would happen because we never used the emotion of fear.

Fear has helped mankind on such a daily basis that I think it is a needed belief. Fear comes in the reincarnation of a good student, fearing bad grades and what their parents will bestow upon them if they do not receive them. Fear also comes in the appearance of a working man, who fears the state of being poor.

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