From our earliest years we are taught to be afraid. “Don’t talk to strangers” marks an early beginning of learned fears. Housed in that fear, we are taught that someone might want to cause us harm, and we become wary of others. Throughout our lives we accumulate a bounty of things and people to fear. In today’s society, fear is used as a political weapon to divide and enlist us into factions that are aimed at those “strangers” we learned about as children. “Muslims are terrorists.” “Mexicans are killers.” Each of these fears, though they are unfounded, causes people – sometimes you and me – to build defensive walls around ourselves to guard us against those strangers. So, how do we become unafraid and how do we conquer our fears?