Who's You're Boogieman?

Several years ago, a family medical doctor told me that one-third of all prescriptions he wrote were patient requested. Think about this: a patient (particularly seniors) observe the endless medicines marketed in television advertisements and then driven by personal maladies the patient asks their family doctor if they can "try" that particular drug. Most family doctors check the patient's chart for current med's looking for interactions and if none found prescribes the medicine. Here we have a great example of the power of suggestion and propaganda married to a person's physical desires. This does not stop with physical only.

Our mind-susceptibility is eager to find both physical gratification and validation for our emotional attitudes. We will latch-on to fiction or facts just as long as our need is met. I challenge any reader this morning to spend two evenings extracting strong anti-political Facebook positions and so-called facts and then google seeking a fact-check. You will be surprised how much  the 'boogieman' lies, which are posted are accepted as truth. Unfortunately, not many people take the time to do such research...but then they say, "ignorance is blissful?" In other words, not knowing something untrue makes us comfortable with our erroneous beliefs that support our attitudes.

I think it was 1949. I was ten-years old. It was late one summer afternoon when my friend, Vincent Jacknewitz and I was crawdad fishing at the creek in lower Washington Park East St. Louis when an older neighborhood boy approached us and asked if we'd like to go farther down creek and 'see' a group of Gypsies who had set up a camp site. I knew the Gypsies were in the area because  I saw some earlier in the week wearing colorful outfits and scarves at a bus stop where they were selling  some goods.  I mentioned to my two companions that I had heard some adult neighbors talking about a 'band of Gypsies' in the area and how people with babies and young children should keep an eye out because "those Gypsies are known to steal babies and young children." The older boy said, "Yea but my dad said they don't steal babies that are black, Jews or Polacks." I guess that comment was suppose to make 'me' feel safe, after all Vincent was Polish.  We left our 'stings of liver-bait' in the creek for the crawdads and jumped on our bikes to go check out the Gypsies. I watched some great dancing but did not notice any small children tied to stakes.

Today, I need not look for Gypsies to find a 'boogieman.' I simply turn on the radio and listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Sean Hannity on Fox News. These fellas each carry a sack full of  'boogieman' conspiracy theories. It's no longer the Gypsies...today it's the Mexicans, Blacks, Muslims, Jews. Middle eastern refugees and of course, those evil liberal-Democrats. The ignorant, insecure, threatened and bigoted need 'boogiemen.' You gotta have someone to blame.
(Touch)
The Gypsy