By Cheo Tyehimba

When I was a kid we used to play a game called Hot Peas and Butter, Come get your Supper! The rules were simple. Whoever was "it" had to hide a belt in the yard while four or five of us would wait nearby "on base." After finding the most desired hidden location – under a rock, doormat, or camouflaged among bushes – the person would holler "Hot Peas and Butter, Come and Get your Supper! We would then run off "base" to the yard and begin our frantic search for the belt.

As we looked, we'd be given a nerve-racking account of who was closest to uncovering the belt. "Naw…you're cold. Way too cold…Uh oh! She's getting warm. Oh no! She's hot! She's getting hotter, hotter…she's burning up, ya'll!"

At this announcement, we'd spend less time looking for the belt and more time suspiciously eye-balling each other, wondering who would suddenly rip it out from under a bush and try their best to whip the rest of us before we ran screaming back to base. The belt-finder would then get to hide it next and the game continued on, usually until someone got popped too hard, maybe a welt across the legs or arm, and ran crying home. The funny thing is, there was never really a winner to "Hot Peas and Butter" and the game never had an ending.

Most likely created during slavery on some South Carolina plantation as a cruel joke which quickly evolved into a children's game, the fact that the game survived so many generations is clear: Americans thrive on fear-based traditions. Fear is the one jones none of us can shake. The most primal of human drives, it does not discriminate. And America's founding fathers and the stupid white men to come after them (stupid, because of their failure to recognize their own democratic oaths) were masters at inculcating fear into every aspect of our culture.

The very first newspaper in North America, Public Occurrences, by Benjamin Harris, published on September 25, 1690, was created, in part, to assuage the tide of fear rising in the so-called New World. The paper's intent was to "document memorable providences, encourage knowledge of affairs at home and abroad, and combat the spirit of lying which prevails amongst us." It's the "spirit of lying" part that speaks volumes for me.

As a seasoned journalist, I've become accustomed to the sly use of quotes, lying through omission, unbalanced reporting, corporate spin, and a host of other tricks used to report the news. Under the banner of "all the news that's fit to print," major media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News, etc., play a never-ending game of "Hot Peas and Butter" with the public. We search for the truth and all we find is fear.

Working in tandem with the White House, the Pentagon and a handful of huge corporations, a select few control the flow of information in the United States. Whether through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books or the Internet, a few giant conglomerates are determining what we see, hear and read. And this situation is likely to become much worse as a result of radical deregulation efforts by the Bush administration.

So why fan the flames of fear? Because next to sex, nothing sells as quickly as fear. You've read the headlines: "Terrorist unlikely to attack if Bush re-elected," "Color Coded Terrorist Threat Level at Red," "Osama Bin Laden Definitely Still Alive - and He's Gonna Gitcha!)" They all might as well scream "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid!"

Should we be afraid? How responsible has the media been? How fair has the media been while reporting the war? What about the Presidential Debates? Who benefits from keeping us fearfully wary and watchful of each other as we play this new game of "Hot Peas & Butter?"

Slingshot, a column that was first launched as "Coda" in 2000 on The Black World Today.com, is about deciphering through the blather of opinion generated by the media. It's about standing up to big media bullies using nothing more than the truth, the most primal choice of weapons. We're gonna hit 'em up and hit 'em hard!

Now resurrected on whatchusay.com, Slingshot is your place to break it down, disagree, or drop knowledge. So get at me. Because what you say it what's it's all about.

Blog On: What's the latest fear perpetuated by the media? And what can we do to free ourselves from fear?