Why are Americans so afraid? Our civilization has been under tremendous pressure to be cautious and afraid of everything. We are afraid of the weather, meteors, fires and flooding. We are afraid of each other, conflict and controversy. We are looking for safe spaces, safe working environments and safety from opposing points of views.

We have allowed our schools, entertainment industry, social commentaries, political movements and peer leaders to frighten us about our abilities and intentions. We can’t build a wall because it is racist. We cannot defeat China in a trade war because we cannot afford to pay a penny more for a can of soup. We cannot fight terrorists because it will make the terrorists mad at us. Everything is frightening to the American youth.

We have allowed our children to believe that they are just a product of their mother’s choice, the air is dirty, no jobs are available, the rich hate them, capitalism is negative, and our country is weak.

So here we sit with a crop of young adults with no hope, courage or ambition. They are full of doubt, fear and dread. They are in debt, think they are special, don’t want a car or home and believe they are entitled to other people’s money. This past week I have been speaking with this new young-adult group and want to report that we have a lot of work to do.

First, we must stop allowing public education to have free access to our children. They are not learning the Constitution, American values and the importance of our culture. We must engage our children with our point of view, teach them that our opinions are of greater value than the teachers’ and must correct and inspect what is being taught to them.

Second, we must stop the propaganda from the media constantly telling us how dangerous our values are. We are not polluting the planet, we are not changing the weather, and we do not believe that science has the answers to our problems.

Every attempt to bring America back to greatness is met with resistance through fear. In spite of the great economy on every level – unemployment, consumer confidence, wages, new business start-ups, housing and savings – the fear managers constantly tell of the doom and gloom of returning to greatness.

So we are told that China must continue to rip off America because they are so powerful. We are told that they are too strong to fight in a tariff war and that we will lose. But as soon as we started just talking about that war, China asked to negotiate. China knows they cannot withstand a trade war with the strongest economy in the world. But Americans are afraid of China!

We were told that TTP, NAFTA and the wall would be to hard for us. Mexico will not cooperate, and we will have a hit on our economy. But Trump just hinted at TTP and NAFTA being connected with that caravan of 1,500 illegal invaders from Guatemala, and all of the sudden the invasion was split up and mostly disbanded.

Then Trump heard of the Syrian attacks on their own citizens with gas and chemicals. We were told to be afraid of their Russian comrades. We were told that they are too strong, the Russians promised to shoot down our missiles, and that Syria was not frighten of any American response.

Turns out that great Russian military was only effective when bullying small, nearly defenseless countries like Ukraine. Trump put together a coalition with France and Britain and began the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapon capacity. Not only was the great feared Russian army ineffective, but we destroyed their Syrian allies standing right next to them, in their presence and without regard of their capabilities.

Can you even imagine a country bombing our allies while American troops stood nearby? Can you get your mind around Russia bombing Turkey with the U.S. Air Force in Turkey watching it? Russia stood down because it was not worth defending Syria. America is both feared and respected because we are both capable and determined.

Trump has since considered more sanctions on Russia, and we continue to push them around in the Middle East. Have you noticed that none of these countries ever “boycott” America? Trump is adding more boycotts to Russia over its use of poisonous gas on Russian spies in Britain and their support of Syria using chemical weapons. Why is there no country putting serious boycotts on America? Because we are the greatest and the marketplace for the world.

Understand this is our strength and is also the target of our enemies, both foreign and domestic. Making America great again cannot happen with a frightened America. Some of us think of ourselves as slaves. “It’s OK to Leave the Plantation” is not only the title of my book. It is also the message to our youth. You cannot win a war if you are afraid to lose a battle.

Being frightened brings appeasement, and appeasements has brought us every war we have ever been in. We appeased the king of England until we had the Revolution; we appeased the South until the Civil War; we appeased Germany until we had World War I and II; we tried appeasing North Korea and Iran, but history has already told us what is coming. Appeasement allows our enemies time to grow stronger and adds to the price our youth must eventually pay to defeat them.

After World War II, Gen. Patton requested, “Allow me to fight the Russians while we still have an army in Europe.” It took an entire generation of suffering before Eastern Europe was freed when President Reagan showed up and stopped the appeasement. We win when we show up.