I’ve spent the last five years trying to rationalize my own fear. I can still feel the accident, I can hear myself scream and I can see the blood in the water.

As the boat propeller sheared through my midsection, the severed pelvic bone offered just enough resistance to push my body away. By the time the 250-horsepower Yamaha’s blades reached my spine on the fourth strike, the impact was shallow enough only to crack three vertebrae and expose my spinal cord.

While I should have been paddling across the Molokai Channel, I spent the next hour laying face down in the back of a fishing boat in a pool of my own coagulating blood. Someone said over the radio, “he’s not going to make it back to the harbor.” Someone else asked me to talk to them about my upcoming wedding. I’d seen enough war movies to know that this was the part where I die.

But I made it. I can walk, I can paddle, and I still regularly jump out of motorboats.

The shock of being ripped apart doesn’t go away. When my thoughts drift back to the accident my body cringes like nails on a chalkboard. My back tenses in anticipation of impact when I board a propeller plane or use a circular saw. Most frightening is when I’m in a canoe race and about to jump out of our escort boat. My entire being screams “NO” as I stand on the precipice.

My fear is irrational, and I know it. But no amount of statistics can eliminate the physical sense of fear I get when I approach a spinning blade.

Thirty people per year die from propeller injuries in the U.S. — that’s about the same number of Americans who die annually from falling furniture — and also the same number of Americans who die worldwide from terrorism. The chances of any of that happening to you is 1 in 3.5 million– the same odds as winning the Missouri Lottery Jackpot.

As an American, you’re 55 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist or a propeller, 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer, and 1,904 times more likely to die from a car accident.

As an American, you’re 55 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist or a propeller, 33,842 times more likely to die from cancer, and 1,904 times more likely to die from a car accident.

I don’t think that I’m going to win the jackpot and I’ve never been scared of being killed by a falling television.

So why am I so scared of propellers? And why is America so scared of Islamic terrorism?

Because, unlikely as they are, death by propeller or death by Jihad are justifiably terrifying mental images. We can’t control what we’re afraid of. The amygdala reacts to danger, but it doesn’t calculate the likelihood of it happening. And so our fears are rooted not in reality, but in the early evolution of our brain.

Eight out of 10 Americans think that there will be a major terrorist attack on the U.S. in the near future and 72 percent of us are willing to trade our own personal privacy for stricter anti-terrorism measures.

We’re using fear to dictate policy. And we’re making a dangerous mistake.

Donald Trump continues to lie about seeing Muslims dancing in the streets after 9/11. Jeb Bush insists that “Islamic terrorism (is) the biggest threat facing America today.” Ben Carson claims that we need “to destroy their caliphate” in order to “destroy them before they destroy us.” Ted Cruz made headlines by saying that to defeat ISIS we need to have more “tolerance for civilian casualties.”

And Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard continues to rise in national prominence after responding to all of that fear mongering with a vote to temporarily halt the flow of refugees.

Terrorists commit unpardonable acts of evil. But they do it to evoke an emotional response. They can’t take over western civilization and Sharia law will never trump our constitution. That’s not what we’re fighting.

Their only power is in inciting terror through horrendous acts of violence. We need to combat terrorism through reasonable military action and by fighting to ensure that the freedoms inherent in American society will continue to overpower extremism.

But instead, irrational fear drives us to close our borders, give up our inalienable rights, and kill more civilians. And those are the results that the terrorists are looking for. That is the only way that they can win.

We have to remember that we’re fighting irrational fear— not Islam.

Rational fears keep us safe. They keep me from texting and driving, and they are why the world’s largest ever gathering of world leaders were talking about climate change in Paris this month. While it doesn’t make me any more relaxed around propellers, we need to understand the difference between rational and irrational fear. Despite my freak accident, my fear of propellers is irrational. Despite the beautiful weather today, fear of climate change is rational.

We rely on our politicians to be more informed and more rational than us. That is why we have a representative democracy. But, as the media jumps from crisis to crisis, truth, compassion, and temperance can’t break through, but fear mongering does.

As the media jumps from crisis to crisis, truth, compassion, and temperance can’t break through, but fear mongering does.

Remember the call to close our border with Mexico to stop Ebola? Or the Obamacare Death Panels? Or the run-away inflation that was supposed to occur as a result of deficit spending?

They were wrong every time. Yet, they stick to the strategy — because fear mongering works.

Tulsi Gabbard made headlines recently by saying that we’re facing a possible “devastating nuclear war” with Russia if we don’t support Assad. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie are all saying that fighting climate change will “destroy” our economy.

While the constant threat of terrorism, Ebola, or nuclear war may make our palms sweat and our hearts race, they are now just another political tool in the never-ending race to win an election.

It would be easy to conclude here by saying that demagogic politicians are a greater threat to democracy than terrorists. But, I’d be falling into the same irrational trap of fear mongering. American democracy is not going to be beaten by fear of extremist ideology — whether it’s Islamic or conservative. I know that we’re better than that.

Our frontal lobe uses logic to temper our amygdala’s irrational fear. Rationality brought us down from the trees and onto our two feet, it allowed us to ascend out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance, and it led us to declare our inalienable rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Rationality is the only reason that I can still jump out of a motorboat.

Vibrant and contentious political debate is the backbone of a functioning democracy. But, our political dialogue needs to be based on substance and sound policy decisions, not memes and sound bites. We need to demand that our politicians and media give us accurate data so that we can differentiate between real fears that need to be acted upon and trumped up fears that do not.

After five years of battling my own fears, I’ve finally realized that it’s ok to be afraid. We don’t have to overcome all fear—we just can’t give in to irrational fears.