GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--June 22, 2003-- Iraq's Liberty Bell is bleeding.   Its wounds continue to spurt blood, a reminder that the price of Liberty costs more than just Victory over the Beast of Terror's henchmen.  One day, however, the blood will stop.  It will be the Mothers of Vigilance who bring that about.

      I felt sad this morning as I read in the Christian Science Monitor about a U.S. Army paratrooper who made a memorial for his Marine brother, killed in Baghdad on April 10, the day after the Iraq city fell.   The paratrooper, Richard Bohr, made the makeshift memorial out of piece of concrete, two-by-three feet.

     He painted the American Flag on it, including the words "Semper Fi" and "Operation Iraqi Freedom."   He draped a St. Michael necklace over the memorial stone, kissed it, and looked at the spot where his brother had died.
      Then he left.
      Immediately following the military's departure from the area, reports Scott Peterson of the Monitor, a seven-year-old Iraqi boy wearing a 101 Dalmatians t-shirt snatched up the necklace and began pelting the stone with rocks.   Joined by an angry crowd, the memorial was smashed.
       Iraq is bleeding and seething after its liberation.
       Anger and resentment against the United States is being fueled by the lack of government and growing dissent by citizens who view American forces as an occupying foreign nation.   Today, the news is filled with the destruction of an Iraqi oil well, and reports that Saddam Hussein is alive and well, hiding somewhere in Iraq that is as large as the State of California.
       I thought about the cheer issued by the seven-year-old, reported by the Monitor.  He yelled:  "I broke it--it was me!"  He added, "I don't like America.  They hurt us."
       They boy's anger was stirred by the fact his 12-year-old brother was killed near the spot where Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jeffery Bohr had died, "perhaps in the same incident" speculated  reporter Peterson.
        Liberation is a bloody process.

       Anyone who has detoxed from any addiction knows the pain and suffering of shedding one skin to wear another.    The pain of transferring one's life to another form is not unlike untwisting a pretzel.  And, when you add death and destruction to the evolution, bitterness and resentment often rule.
        A young boy in Iraq, however, is blind to liberation.  He sees only the pain and anguish of a dead brother, his homeland blasted into chunks of rubble, and the harsh Voices of boastful men deriding Americans as invaders, occupiers of his land.
        In the Monitor article, author Peterson noted that some Iraqi women tried to stop the youths from desecrating the memorial.    And, there were comments by other Iraqi women positive about the liberation of their country, but frustrated over the reconstruction of freedom, and the dangers of a possible civil war if Iraq is not put back on track.
        I thought it interesting that the Iraqi women understood, or at least articulated, the importance of liberty to the future, even though they were aware of its dangers in the present.

        It was a reminder that the Mothers of Vigilance are the key to driving off the Beast of Terror.
        Mothers, by nature, understand liberation far more emphatically than men.
        Mothers are the keepers of future generations.  Within the womb of a woman is the key to all that will unfold, for her womb houses the hostel for the Children's Children's Children.
        A mother can see over the horizon, can look past the pain and anguish of the present to what the world can be for her children, and her Children's Children's Children.
        Men often contend with the present--erupting into violence as with the young boy smashing the memorial.   The future for a man is often defined by what exists now, not what can be.  
        I thought sadly of this boy, but I understood.  I understood the rage and anger he knew, for he only saw the death of his brother and the destruction of his homeland by outsiders.   
        He didn't understand Liberty.   One English-speaking Iraqi woman, Nagham Fadhel, told the Monitor: "I consider [US troops] a liberation army, but many are ignorant, and I now see them as the enemy."   She meant, they do not see the future.
        I remember a number of years ago I was preparing to go to Japan to open businesses.  My partner and I went to a Japanese-American woman, the first to be qualified in Federal Courts to translate Japanese into English, a specific art when the twist or turn of a word's meaning can depend on someone's guilt or innocence.

      She articulated the cultural background of Japan, and made sure my partner and I understood how to retain our credibility and power.   She noted that the Japanese men would try to "steal our power," by tempting us with many things from gifts, women and promises they probably would not keep.  She reminded us that no matter what relations existed between the U.S. and Japan, the pain of humiliation over losing the war still lingered in the men's genes.
       But, she reminded, the Japanese women respected Americans.   She told us that most conquerors killed and maimed those they conquered, but that Americans had been honorable.  They had maintained the dignity of the people, protected them from harm, and respected them.   "Never forget the women of the land--at least the older ones--respect you," she said.
       At the time, it seemed odd to me she would reinforce that point since business dealings in Japan are with men.   But, she was telling me something deeper.  She was, in her perspicacious way, embossing in me that women are the true sources of Vigilance in any society.  When the women and children are treated with respect, there is victory.
       Reading the quote from the Iraqi woman in the Monitor, I remind myself that the Womb of the Sentinel of Vigilance is all women.    Not to discount that empathy of men, but as one, I tend to be stuck in the present.   The warrior-nature of men is to fight all "enemies," and in that gene is also a blindfold.  It often masks the real nature of things.
       A seven-year-old boy only sees blood leaking from the Liberty Bell.
       A mature Iraqi woman sees Liberation, freedom, security for the future.
       I must remind myself that the problems in Iraq are probably because the culture is so dominated by male leadership.

      It has taken more than two-hundred years for America to find some equal footing for women.   Just a few decades ago.  It was August 26, 1920 before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed and American women were enfranchised, given the right to vote.  It took 148 years from "liberation" for that to happen.
        And, the movement of the woman from the housewife to the worker among workers is relatively new.   It started after WWII, and peaked in the 60's and 70's with the women's liberation movement.  It is still in first gear as we head toward the election of the first woman president, somewhere in the future.
         If I had Harry Potter's magic wand, I would give all the women of Iraq equal power of the men.  For that matter, I would give that right to all globally.
         Then, I believe the Mothers of Vigilance would resolve the issue of Terrorism at a much swifter rate than men.   The women would see the values to the Children's Children's Children with more clarity, and would teach Vigilance rules over Terrorism.
         They would teach their children not to destroy memorials, but to make a world where makeshift stones remembering the dead who died in battle were not necessary.
         That day will come.
         It draws closer with each ring of the Vigilance Bell--the bell that cries for every child who is victimized by Terrorism.

June 21--Banishing Terrorism From Times Square

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