The Psycho Kitty Response

I have a silly cat named Magda (read more about Madga's antics here ), who loves to spook herself. She likes nothing better than working herself into a slip-and-slide scramble to escape from unforeseen and apparently
terrifying foes. At odd moments, the slightest non-sound
will cause her to fling herself to safety by racing top speed to the
defensible space of the linen closet, or to tactical positions behind the
clothes dryer or under the bed. She has these little terrors so often
during calm conditions, my partner and I have concluded that she must get
something out of it...some little kitty contact high from revving up her
flight or fight response.

Strangely enough, I noticed that same thing happening with the residents in
my current neighborhood. Lately there has been a seasonal uptick in
community crimes (burglaries, car break-in's, etc.). It's unsettling but
not an appreciably different story from most transitional areas.
I've always seen the place for what it is...beautiful but flawed by its
proximity to persistent poverty.

Suddenly however, it's as if a heretofore undetectable veil has been removed from the eyes of my neighbors. They now realistically see crimes that have always been there but also other nonexistent ones...potential hazards borne out of their newfound conviction that this is a place that is inherently more dangerous than they had conceived. This virgin fear has many questioning whether they should continue to live here...and if they stay (out of economic limitation or inertia) they do so at their own peril. On our local Yahoo email list, response after response agonizes over the scary state of affairs. "What will become of us?" is the collective wail.

Of course chances are that some will actually get victimized by
crime consistent with trends of years past. More will be victimized by
the very idea that crime has "recently" found a home close to them.
Watching this I thought we must get something out of this activation of our
flight or fight reflex, just like Magda does when she's running from
vicious dust bunnies.

Why do we need an enemy without?

On a global level, blaming the "other" has circumvented opposition and
amassed an amazingly monolithic solidarity on the home front. Perhaps this
tendency to route out outsiders has trickled down to my local level. Less
tolerance abroad translating into less tolerance in my literal homeland.

There are no simple answers or truths, just lots and lots of frightened
homeowners. And where do I stand? I'm scared yes, but that's nothing new.
I moved here with a combination of gratitude and fear. I knew it was a
transitional area but was grateful. Because it was transitional, we were
able to afford a house on a half acre overlooking a valley infused with a luminous, Maxfield Parrish-like beauty.

Am I to give up the gift of this homestead to move to supposedly safer (and smaller, and more distant) environs still within commuting distance to work? Fight or flight is the most simplistic response to exterior threat...my own cat has shown me that. But perhaps I need to cleave to a higher ideal...to stay and believe that progress can be made, albeit one step at a time.