You know you are becoming paranoid when you write an email to the Mayor and the next day a city car, you assume to be the housing inspector, is parked in front of your house.

You know you are become paranoid when one of you regular email addresses stops working and you think it is because you put it on a flyer for a nonviolent action.

You know you are becoming paranoid when two people in the back seat of you car are talking and laughing about someone they know and think it is you.

You know you are becoming paranoid when you think other persons are talking about you behind your back when they are just ignoring you.

In my experience paranoia comes from thinking we are a more important person in the world order than we are. We forget the speck we are on the planet and our world revolves around us. I think it is a lack of self confidence and not valuing ourselves for the person we are rather than the person we think others perceive us. Often a violent event or death triggers paranoia.

Tonight, July 3, 2015 is the night of one of the biggest fireworks display in the United States on the lakefront. The Milwaukee area is home to one of the largest firework families and they do a big show here on July 3rd every year. To get a good viewing post you literally need to camp out for a day or so in Veterans Park at the lakefront. It is paradoxical that it is called Veterans Park because for many veterans the July 4th fireworks are a nightmare, reminding them of war experiences of the hell of war. Wars of USA like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are full of explosions, smell of gun fire, death, injury and damage that has become modern day warfare.

I can think only of one president, John Kennedy, since Dwight Eisenhower that experienced war. Eisenhower left office warning of us the ‘military/industrial complex’ that he saw as taking over the country. When President Kennedy, his successor realized the mistake of the Vietnam War and tried to pull back he was assassinated.

Many soldiers returning from war are often paranoid, unable to live everyday life at home. The wounds of the mind inflicted by war drive many of them to commit suicide. There is attention to the effects soldiers suffer, Post traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) but not much to do about its causes. Soldiers consistently ready “to kill or be killed” are running on adrenaline and cannot just turn off the horrors of war, the killing they did or saw, when they return home.

Paranoia is one of the many symptoms of a wounded mind, often set off by horrible experiences of violence, war and death. War is Paranoia.

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