GROUND ZERO, New York City, Jan. 7-- Every now and then the magic of Vigilance has a way of filtering its way through the clouds of Terrorism.

      Last night that Vigilant magic showered down at the famous New York City Bronx Zoo's Festival of Lights.
       For three fantasy hours the threat of North Korea's defiance of the U.S. and its arrogance toward the United Nations faded as I drove my daughter, wife and three grandchildren into the parking lot of the Bronx Zoo.  I didn't realize I was en route to a world where even the most troubled soul or concerned auditor of Terrorism would be forced to put down his or her angst and be consumed by a winter-wonderland of lights and snow, all designed to remove the tensions of a world on the brink of war.  I didn't realize I was about to enter a world of Anti-Terrorism, where the solution to Fear, Intimidation and Complacency would rise up and greet me.

         For some magical reason--perhaps because the air was filled with shiny silver shards of snow dancing like celestial glitter through the branches of snow-laden trees, and because spotlights ignited trails of lights carved into the shapes of animals that blinked and shimmered in the chilly, still air as though a kingdom was waiting for those who believed in the beauty not the ugliness of the world--I didn't think of Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, or the children being abducted in Sri Lanka by Tiger Terrorists to be used as suicide bombers in a twenty-year struggle for independence.
         The falling snow and glittering lights of the festival washed clean my daily vision of Terrorism's claws raking the underbelly of the world, both at home and abroad.  For a few, relaxing moments I didn't think about the children in New Jersey locked in a fetid room in a basement for weeks as their mother lay in a hospital, struck by a car after she had abandoned them to a negligent baby sitter.   I forgot the face of the young boy who had challenged me on the bus the other day, his eyes symbolizing his early hatred of others he had chosen to believe as his "enemies," or that he was walking hand-in-hand with his guardian--the Beast of Terror--who taught him how to spew the venoms of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency on those whom he deemed oppressors.

         The snow's silvery fluttering down through the boughs of the Bronx Zoo trees, the ooohs and ahhhs of the kids, and my own sweeping feeling of my adulthood being stripped from me, releasing my "child within," gripped my soul.   The beauty of the night swept me clean of my TerrorHunterism stance.  I had entered Nature's Womb of Innocence, a place where all who enter are freed of trappings that inhibit their imagination, or thoughts that try to shove out the magic of what can be for the stone-cold reality of what is.
       As I walked through the rows of lights glistening in the night, I was reminded that the Bronx Zoo is the grandfather of TerrorHunting.   For more than a century it has fought battles of Vigilance against the rape, pillage and plunder humans exert over the land, and swung its Sword of Vigilance and held up its Shield of Vigilance to protect the innocent, the children's children's children of the land.   While it's mission has been to preserve and protect the "creatures of the earth," its result has been to remind us all that the wanton destruction of life, and the extermination of a species can be stopped through Acts of Vigilance.  It only requires Courage, Conviction and Right Actions to achieve.

      The Bronx Zoo opened its gates to the public on November 8, 1899.  Its goals were clear: create a zoological park, advance the study of zoology, protect wildlife and educate the public.   It started with 22  exhibits and 843 animals.  Today it boasts over 4,000 animals and spreads over 265 acres.  Its exhibits include some of the most advanced wildlife sanctuaries in the world, including the magnificent Congo Gorilla Forest, geared to help endangered gorillas breed and preserve the magnificent creatures.
       The Zoo's history as a Sentinel of Vigilance and expert TerrorHunter of those who would eradicate creatures through neglect or intent  is not a 21st Century innovation.   It became the first Zoo Of Vigilance, bent on protecting the children's children's children of the animal world from the Beast of Terror's claws and jaws.  In this sense, it became the First Parent of Zoological Vigilance.  It's first Act of Vigilance was to protect the bison.

        In 1899, William T. Hornaday, the zoo's first director, foresaw the extinction of the American bison.  Once numbering more than 50 million, the herds were reduced to less than 1,000 by wholesale slaughter for their skins.  Hornaday sponsored the founding of the American Bison Society at the Bronx Zoo's Lion House.  He fought for and achieved national protection for the bison and lobbied for rangeland establishment for new herds.  In 1907, 15 of the Bronx Zoo bison were shipped to Oklahoma's Wichita Mountain Preserve.  Others were shipped to refuges in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.   A vast majority of the bison in the western U.S. are the children's children's children of Bronx Zoo buffalo shipped at the turn of the 20th Century from the Bronx Zoo.

      Perhaps upon entering the gates of the Bronx Zoo last night, I felt at home, at peace and ease with my surroundings.   I was walking in the Heart of Vigilance, a deep contrast to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" where I spend so much time each day in my efforts to hunt down Terrorism and expose it.   As I negotiated the vermiculating paths leading up to the main exhibits, the falling snow washed away the shadow of the Beast of Terror.  It seemed to cleanse me of the Beast's blood, and replaced the purification of his scent with purity of purpose of how Vigilance can overcome Terrorism, even if such a fortress of Vigilance is contained in 250 acres in the heart of New York City.  The credit goes to the vision of people a century ago who created the a society of conservation.   
      Three years before the Bronx Zoo opened, Mr. Hornaday created the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 1895.  He set about its mission to protect the world from Terrorism, and in so doing, became the Parent of Zoological Vigilance.    Here are some of the achievements the WCS has made over the past century, as listed on the Bronx Zoo website.

        As I reviewed the WCS achievements, I thought about the United Nations struggling to ward off Terrorism throughout the world.  It seemed to me the members of the U.N. tend to turn their heads as nations decimate their human "creatures."  The result is many nations treat their "human creatures" with neglect, imposing upon them poverty, starvation, and often even killing their own as Saddam Hussein did when he gassed the Kurds.   Often, the U.N. does nothing but talk or slap a hand here or there.  Only until recently when the U.S. stood up and thumped its chest regarding Iraq did the wheels of the U.N. start to churn.   I thought of the Complacency of human beings to the maltreatment of their own species, and how often the starving in regions of the world that never make the headlines, go unaided in their struggle to preserve their children's safety and security.   I thought about how the WCS would react if  someone were to gas and kill all the parrots of a nation, or their response to a country that sent out snipers to kill the newly born children of the Siberian Tigers, or one that destroyed the food chain surrounding the fragile snow leopards with radioactive waste.  I was sure the WCS would bring the wrath of the world upon the heads of state who allowed such crimes against nature to happen.

       I wondered if the WCS was in charge of world events how they would look at North Korea spending millions of dollars to support a standing army of 1 million troops with 4.5 million in reserve as their children starved.   I wondered what they would have done when they heard how the famine in North Korea killed 2 million people, mostly the young, the future of the species.
        I was inclined to want the leadership of the WCS to take over the seats of the United Nations for a few months, perhaps a few years, and apply the principles of "species conservation" to human beings.   I had a strong feeling they would have a much better handle on how to contain the Beast of Terror that ran rampant throughout the world, and apply environmental checks and balances than the current members who seem to only talk and never take actions to limit or prohibit the proliferation of dangers to the human species, especially to the children's children's children.
        The WCS would be aware that creatures "fight," but that they fight only to survive not to conquer.   If they kill another creature, they kill to eat their victim, or in defense of an assault on their homeland, their lair, their nest.   They do not arm themselves to wage war on the rest of the creatures, and, they have an uncanny ability to coexist with one another in perfect ecological balance when such balance is not disturbed by human intervention.

        I bowed to the WCS's wisdom of species management.   They knew animals came before humans on the evolutionary chain.   Even those who subscribe to the Bible as the authority of human existence must face the fact  God first created the "creatures of the earth," and then, after the fact, created human beings.   Biblical scholars may argue over the statement in Genesis that God gave man and woman "dominion over the animals." The dispute over whether God gave humans the right to do whatever they wanted, or the duty to protect and respect them is easily answered by the WCS.   The latter is their choice.
         If mankind and womankind took the WCS approach to life as they see it, everyone would be treated with respect on an equal footing.  Those who endangered the balance would be termed Terrorists.  They would be the voracious who "kill for killing sake," or who "rape, pillage and plunder" others for self gain, without respect or duty to others--all others, humans, animals, plants--all life.  They would not be surprised if a war broke out when one nation attacked another, just as they wouldn't be surprised at a mother bear attacking a wolverine after the bear's cub.  But they would deny the wolverine the right to amass weapons of mass destruction to threaten mother bear into giving over her cubs, or the right of the mother bear to hunt down and kill the wolverine on the assumption that one day the wolverine would seek out her cub.  Balance does not mean pacifism.

        The WCS's approach to North Korea and Iraq would be fascinating to watch.  Even though these two nations happen to be Terrorism headline grabbers, they represent a common problem of warring nations geared to threaten the cubs of all the mother bears.  I would assume the WCS would present the case not only of their danger in threatening the lives of human beings, but would include a list of the lives of all creatures--ants, butterflies, trees, flowers, mice, cows, birds and bees.   They would present the dangers not of the moral waste, but of the ecological waste as well.   If humans had become totally inured to accepting the death of other human beings as the "price of war," they might be shocked into a State of Vigilance by realizing the impact war had on all living things--plants and animals.   If they weren't inclined to shed tears of sadness because of prejudice and bigotry or mere human complacency over human destruction, perhaps they would over the death of a sparrow, or the homelessness of a fawn, or the radioactive poisoning of a koala bear.

        Absurd?  Not necessarily.   Wildlife Conservation is a recognition that all things are wild--even human beings.  While we pretend to be civilized, our acts of violence against one another are far more cruel than an alligator eating a Zebra simply because the alligator only eats what he can consume, while mankind tends to kill far more than he can eat.   Mankind is not exempt from being "wild" and "primal," for inside man and woman roams a Beast of Terror that has no boundaries once unleashed.   As our nuclear proliferation continues, our hunger to build weapons of mass destruction escalates, our ability to kill everything increases in inverse proportions.  Civilization becomes more uncivilized with each degree of technology.
         Ergo, our "Wildlife Conservation Needs" expand equally, for the wilderness of the rogue nation or person who seeks to wield power through destruction expands far beyond our ability to control it.   In a perverse sense, the more advanced we become on one hand, the more primal our Beast of Terror becomes on the other.  That is, the "wilder we become."   And, the more we need "Wildlife Conservation" to preserve our species from extinction.

          As we walked around the Bronx Zoo last night I thought about how one day the WCS--if put in charge of World TerrorHunting, or, more appropriately, "Terrorism Conservation," about the WCS building a "Terrorist Enclosure" at the zoo.  They could place it next to the Tasmanian Devil exhibit (no disrespect intended to the Tasmanian Devil whose name gives it a bad rap).   In this enclosure would be all the captured Terrorists who feed on Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.  It would house those who refute Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for the sake of the children's children's children.  It would be home to those who sought to "kill for killings sake."

        Parents and children could visit the enclosure and see the Beasts of Terror tearing and ripping one another apart in an effort to give "dominion over all." While cruel in appearance, it would symbolize the Terrorist's secular interpretation of standing above all other creatures at the expense of all life.   Parents of Vigilance viewing the exhibit with their children would remind their wards that these Beasts of Terror must be guarded and protected from release into the wild, for when they gain freedom they seek to feed on one's Fears, Intimidations and Complacencies.  
         The enclosure could be easily built on the bones of both humans and living creatures such Terrorists have wantonly destroyed over time.  These bones would be signets of the waste Terrorism creates in its pursuit of power over others, in its drive to rule by threat and coercion, and its careless disregard for the safety and security of future generations.
         Available at the Terror Enclosure would be copies of the Pledge of Vigilance. Parents, Guardians and Loved Ones of Vigilance could reaffirm their commitment to keep the Beast of Terror locked in the Bronx Zoo.  They could sign the Pledge of Vigilance or renew their existing vows to bring about a State of Vigilance to the world--one similar to that which the WCS has been working on for more than a hundred years with outstanding success.

         As I thought about the idea, I smiled.   It made much more sense to turn the World of Terrorism over the WCS than to the United States or the United Nations.

          My thoughts collapsed when I heard my grandchildren laugh.
          They were making snowballs and throwing them at me, chasing me along the lighted paths of Bronx Zoo's Conservatory of Human and Creature Dignity.
          I forgot about Terrorism for a moment. I forgot about the Terrorism Enclosure.  I forgot about the WCS taking over the U.S. and U.N. role of TerrorHunters, Terror Managers.
          I forgot about it because the children were laughing, safe, secure in a world of magic created by the Bronx Zoo--a world worth striving to create everywhere on earth.