GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Dec. 5, 2003-- The Snows of Vigilance are falling on Terrorism.  Pure, white, puffy flakes parachute from gray cotton candy clouds, landing on the tongues of children who stand with heads back, tongues out, arms outstretched to taste the pristine flavor of winter's Vigilance.

      Snow erases Terrorism, especially the first snow of the season.  And that first snow is about to fall on Ground Zero, the third Christmas season since the Terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

       I'm ready for the first snowflakes.
       Each flake, like a fingerprint, is unlike all the millions upon millions that will fall.   Each is pure in its nature, crafted by the paintbrush of Nature as a reminder to all of us that Terrorism can be erased, that it can be covered with Vigilance, that each of us in his or her own way can stand up to the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that Terrorism brings to those who are unprepared and unwilling to accept its presence.   

       Terrorism is a season.   It comes as a storm, ravishing the land with its locust, floods, fires and poverty of the mind, body and soul.  Each human being has, at some point in life, been a victim of Terrorism.    In simple terms, Terrorism is about our "ups and downs," about those times in our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, and in the lives of our neighbors, and sometimes the entire world, when pain and suffering attacks us with such a ferocity that we feel as though our viscera are being ripped apart by Pit Bulls, when we feel our body is being stretched on The Rack, or that we're drowning in a quagmire of waste where our screams for help go unheeded, and all we see is the doom and gloom of life's brutality sneering at us as we sink lower and lower.
       The first moment a person is told by a doctor he or she has cancer shocks the mind and soul, enrages the spirit to wonder:  "Why me?"   
       A crippled relationship that rips apart a family shreds the soul not only of the people involved, but the children who are part of it.
       The disappearance of a young woman in North Dakota, allegedly abducted by a level three sex offender, strikes a sledgehammer into the guts of the girls' parents, friends, loved ones.
       A child mortally struck by a racing car before his or her parents' eyes spills blood on the soil of the parents' souls, scaring forever their belief that the world is full of bright sunlight and rainbows.
       We all face Terrorism's brutal season, sometimes more often than we might like.   The test of Terrorism's impact on us, however, isn't our reaction to it, for most of us cannot control the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency that accompanies it.   The test is what we learn from it.

       Do we become victims of Terrorism, bitter, angry, sad, lonely shells of beings who walk about with the Beast of Terror hunkering on our backs, spitting out vehemence against all those whom we feel or believe are the causes of life's injustices?  Or, do we try and heave off the Beast from our backs, and seek out the Sentinels of Vigilance who will teach us how to overcome Fear with Courage, to trump Intimidation with Conviction and shove Complacency out of the forefront with a dedication to taking Right Actions that benefit the Children's Children's Children?
        The snow knows.

         Snow is an allegory for Vigilance.   It falls with beauty upon the scarred lands, covering the blood of life's travails, burying the mangled bodies of those who have become the Beast's victims.   It freezes time.   It bleaches the blood of Terrorism for a moment, for a breathless stitch in time so we can all inhale the magic of Courage, Conviction and Right Action.
        No matter what one's pain or suffering, standing in the first snowfall of the season with your arms outstretched and your tongue stretched out to consume the falling flakes, the soul's pain will heal.
        There is an elixir of solace in the snowflake, an antidote to the bloody shards of the Beast of Terror's poisonous fangs.    Stand in the snow and look up at the flakes spiraling down, see-sawing as feathers from the wings of angels, carefully carved into unique designs as though each were made just for you--tiny analgesics for the pounding, throbbing thoughts of Terrorism that hammer in one's head.

        This is the snow of Vigilance.   It is delivered from a power greater than ourselves, just as Terrorism is brought to us by a power lesser than ourselves.    As Terrorism rises up from the underworld of our thoughts, booby trapping our beliefs in life's glorious nature, twisting sometimes our outlooks so we are blinded by our selfishness, our sufferings, so Vigilance falls from the sky, from high above in the form of snowflakes, to remind us that purity of thought and deed can and will always trip the Beast of Terror, always create the ice that will make him slip and slide and fall back into the bowels of Hell from whence he came.
         Scary?

       Not really.   The Beast of Terror is part of life.  He may not appear every day to torment and challenge our lives, but he is there, hiding in the shadows, waiting to leap on our backs.    He stabs us with his Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.  We've all suffered the arrows of his anger.  We've all fought him--some of us have won more often than we've lost, and others of us can't get him off our backs.
        The snow is one small but vital reminder that he can be shaken off, that he can be buried, that he can be shoved back into his dank, dark lairs where he cannot access our Fear, Intimidation and Complacency without a fruitless battle.

       The Snows of Vigilance bring us the reminder that the world is not a brutal battlefield strewn with victims of the Beast's wrath.    We can all learn a great deal by standing in the first snow and letting the flakes find their way to our thrust out tongues.
        We can learn that Nature favors Vigilance, that the Season of Terrorism passes into the Season of Vigilance, and that none of us is stuck forever in the ruts of Terrorism, none of us is ever manacled by the Beast's wrath unless we give into the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency of our thoughts.
      Vigilance requires we look beyond ourselves, that we force our thoughts to see the beauty of the snowflakes, and, we conjure our Courage and Conviction to share that beauty with the future generations--our children, grandchildren, our loved ones, our friends, and the children of the world.
       The purity of the snowflake is symbolic of our need to think outside the scope of our own selfishness.   It is a reminder that we all owe the Children's Children's Children a belief in something far more important than the reality of a world at odds with itself.   

         Humans have always grown out of conflict.    Conflict--the wrestling match between "good" and "evil," "right" and "wrong," "selfishness" and "selflessness,"--forces us to face the Beast of Terror.   Conflict is the pressure that squeezes our will to chose between what's good for us and what's good for others, and to find some way to manage our lives so that we can live with a sense of giving rather than just taking.
        Human evolution has been about finding a way in which all people can live under the umbrella of peace and prosperity, and along the way, war and poverty has been the great test of this manifest destiny.    We have been at war with ourselves and others since the dawn of time, always trying to achieve the "greater good" that benefits future generations.
        Despite one's political viewpoints, the war in Iraq is about Vigilance.   It is an attempt to banish the Beast of Terror from the land.  Whether it will succeed or not is not the point.   What is important is that the snow of Vigilance is falling on the land, attempting to cover the blood that runs deep and thick in the streets of a country whose history of tyranny and oppression is obvious to all.

       In North Dakota the snow if falling also.  It is trying to cover the blood of a victim of a kidnapping, blanketing the shattered souls of a mother and father, brothers and sisters, loved ones, who may be victims of one human being's Terrorism.
       So what's in a snowflake?
       Each of us needs to look at one falling from the sky to make that final decision.  But there is no question that if you take a child with you and the two of you stand with your heads back and catch snowflakes on your tongues, you will realize that the Snow of Vigilance is magical.
       If you read the Pledge of Vigilance and sign it before you stand in the fresh falling snow, you will see the flakes messages.  They will spell out the words:
                                           C-O-U-R-A-G-E...
                                                C-O-N-V-I-C-T-I-O-N...
                                                      R-I-G-H-T  A-C-T-I-O-N-S.
    And, the blood of Terrorism will be covered.    It will be replaced with the Blanket of Vigilance, a reminder to all who are victims of the Beast of Terror that there is a way out of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.

    One way out is the belief in a snowflake--a snowflake destined for a child's tongue--that through Courage, Conviction and Right Actions that benefit the Children's Children's Children, all forms of Terrorism can be conquered.
     If you're not sure, stick out your tongue as the snow falls.

Dec. 4--The Terrorism Of Not Breastfeeding

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