“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Thus did Franklin Roosevelt begin his first Inaugural Address. Seventy-five years later, fear itself has become an amenity, like granite counter tops and hot tubs that some homebuilders are using to market new houses.

A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch report says that Wentzville, will be Missouri's first "full camera-secure subdivision." Buyers of the $200,000 to $400,000 houses will find them wired with a three-camera surveillance system. Homeowners plug their computers into the system and voila!

Look out kidnappers! Look out prowlers! Look out Freddy Krueger! For that matter, because the system can be accessed online, look out teenagers who think they can have a party when mom and dad are out of town!

Security experts were dubious about the value of the systems, but one would-be homebuyer was impressed: "The camera thing is huge to us. I watch these shows where these predators get the kids."

Ah, yes. Television. "Cops." "America's Most Wanted." "The Six O'Clock News." Old movies like "Hostage" or "Panic Room." Watch enough television, you won't ever leave the house. Or if you do, you'll be packing heat. You watch enough television, it's obvious that car-jackers and thugs are just around the corner, particularly — God forbid — if you have to go into the city.

People tend not to understand fear itself. In a recent issue of Psychology Today, Paul Slovic, a professor at the University of Oregon who studies the way people make decisions, notes that fear is hard-wired into the brain, always on the lookout for danger. "This is the way our ancestors evaluated risk before we had statistics," he said.

Thus we fear snakes and falls from high places, but not things that haven't had time to be wired into the brain, bicycling without helmets, for example. Fear is an emotional response, not a reasoned one. No matter how long the odds against experiencing similar trauma, the more people are exposed to scary things, the more they come to fear them.

Our view: If it makes you feel safer, by all means buy a house in Paranoia Acres or the Villas at Trepidation Creek. It's an extra $2,500, money that you'll be more likely to recoup by putting in a nicer kitchen or bathroom, but if it makes you feel safe, go for it. You could also wire your home with a $10,000 security system, get a concealed-carry permit and a Doberman.

Odds are overwhelmingly against your ever needing the help they provide, but if you're fearful, go ahead and spend the dough.

But understand you're thinking with your fears and not your head. Only about 1 in every 2,200 cases of child abduction or disappearance can be attributed to persons unknown to the child or family. The FBI's Uniform Crime Statistics indicated that some 80 percent of homicides are committed by persons known by the victims. Most of the rest of them involve young males, alcohol and drugs.

But on your way out to Wentzville to look at houses, be sure to buckle your seat belt.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.