Nov. 2--Ground Zero Plus 52
 FIVE THOUSAND SILENT CHEERS FOR THE YANKEES

         It had to be them.  Five thousand plus silent Voices cheering on the Yankees.   What else could it be?  Two nights in a row?  The ninth inning?  Like some fairy tale story.   Out of the ashes rose the Phoenix Bird. 
      I had fallen asleep last night.  My daughter called to tell me the game was tied.  I tried to stay awake, but since I get up at four or five each morning to work on the website, much after midnight is tough.   And, again, I had that lingering doubt, that insidious Complacency that we "just couldn't do it again."  
      Vigilance wanes around midnight for me.   I hoped they would win.  I wanted them too.  But there is that incredible logic rolling around one's head that suggests the impossible and improbable is not possible or probable.   I miss my childish visions when I did believe the "cow could jump over the moon, and the dish could run away with the spoon."  But this morning, it was made a fact to me again--The Sentinels of Vigilance work even when I sleep.   I laughed at myself.   Here I am, trying to promote Vigilance and becoming Complacent.   The Sinner trying to be a Saint.   Ah, but what was refreshing was to realize that I had no power over the Sentinels.  They had their own agenda.  They were going to prove to me and the world that Hope and Belief and Faith and Courage and Conviction and, most of all, Action works even in the 12th Inning of Life.
     Yesterday, I had pumped out nearly a hundred press releases about the website.  Uploaded files to get the site listed on hundreds of servers.  And written some well-known government officials who fight terrorism politically and militarily, with my cry to add a grass roots battle to their agendas--the Parents of Vigilance.
     I felt like the Yankees with Arizona three runs on the board in the Ninth Inning.   What I didn't remember was there were 5,000 silent souls cheering on their home team.   I didn't remember Vigilance overpowers the Complacency.
     Skeptics may chalk up this win to just "luck," or "fortune," or maybe an inexperienced pitcher for Arizona who threw the wrong pitches--all logical, sound, skeptical stuff.  
     But I'm going to stick to my Friday-morning quarterbacking.   And that is that there were 5,000 silent Sentinels of Vigilance reminding the Yankees "it ain't over 'till its over."
     I awoke with the belief that one day the Parents of Vigilance will spread their wings and fly in flocks all over the world.   Maybe I'm in just too big a hurry to win a long-fought battle.   Maybe I'm in the first inning and think it's the ninth?  I take lessons from my environment.   I see the Yankees as my symbols of Vigilance, reminding me if I wait for right pitch, and work on keeping my defense offensive, and swing the bat to make hits not home runs, that I'll eventually drive the ball of Vigilance into the stands. 
        I need to take the cotton out of my ears, and listen to the Voices of Vigilance...those 5,000 souls who have risen up from the ashes of destruction as Sentinels of Vigilance to remind us all--"it ain't over 'till it's over."

 Nov. 1—Ground Zero Plus 51
 Yankees win WITH  Courage, confidence & Conviction

           i felt the complacency last night about the bottom of the 8th inning.  I was about to go to bed even though we happen to have a Derek Jeter signed baseball sitting on our hutch.   It seemed to me it was over.  But I forget Joe Torres' hat says, "It ain't over till it's over."   I forgot about Vigilance.  I forgot the Sentinels of Vigilance were rooting on the Yankees.   Complacency in its most base form attacked me.   Just as I was about to chuck it in, my buddy Jeter took the plate.  Two strikes, two outs, no hits in the game...a big slump...I just didn't want to see the pain of my Sentinels of Vigilance not being there for me.  I felt like the kid who stopped believing in Santa Claus.   The, the pitch came. And Jeter whacked it.  And it flew, like the spirits of the all the 5,000 Plus spirits rose out of the World Trade Center and drove the wood into the ball.   Up and up and up the ball soared, and then the crowd began to cheer.  And I cheered.  And cheered.  And cheered.   Jeter hadn't forgotten the formula to fight Terrorism--Courage, Conviction and Action.  But I had.  The first step, Courage...had turned to Fear the Yankees would lose; the second step, Conviction had become Intimidation that the other team was better, stronger, more deserving, and the last and most insidious, was the Complacency that I was tired of believing in the Sentinels, that maybe it was all fantasy--that Santa didn't really exist---and I didn't take the Action...I resigned myself to go to bed and wake up to the horrible news the Yankees had lost... but then...the world changed.    The ball soared, my spirits soared...I was renewed.    Even if you're not a Yankee fan, you have to admit there was magic last night....   From the womb of the World Trade Center I could hear the birth of belief....I felt the power of the Sentinels reminding me to stay Vigilant.   Because "it ain't over 'till it's over..."
                                                                           

  Oct 31—Ground Zero Plus 50
   The Scariest Day Of The Year-When We Forget! 

                Halloween!   To some, it is the scariest day of the year.  It is the time the ghosts and goblins come out of the dark shadows, their hands in the air--loud "boos" ringing in the dank dark night.
          For me, tonight, Oct. 31, is scary because it marks Ground Zero Plus 50.   It is just fifty days and a day ago that Terrorism attacked America's security, pounded its pride into a mass of twisted rubble and thousands of innocent killed. But it seems like a century ago.
          September 11 was a day the reputation of America as a "safe and secure" nation died and the "ghosts and goblins" of Terrorism leapt out of the shadows of death's shroud to squat on America's doorstep.
          What scares me most about today is the fear, apprehension and concern I have that so many are slowly forgetting the purpose of the attack fifty days plus ago.   The Second Tuesday of September hallmarked a violation of our domestic peace, a destruction of our internal security.  It was a warning shot across our bow that we no longer enjoyed the Freedom From Fear.  It was an horrible announcement that we were now part of what the rest of the world knows as "strife and rife" in their daily lives.  As some said that day, "Welcome to the real world, America."
                                                           Day Of Maturity
          September 11 besides being a day of tragedy was also a day of "maturity."  It was at 8:48 a.m. that morning when America was told to expand the muscles of its Courage, Conviction and to take Action for the future of its children.  At 8:48a.m on the Second Tuesday of September, America stood on the threshold of manhood and womanhood, looking back at its innocence as a child might who had been protected for hundreds of years by its isolation from the rest of the troubled world.  It was the day that Americans knew they could die at the hands of some foreign invader in the peace and quiet of their neighborhood.
          America stepped out of the clothes of a child that day, and into the icy blast of maturity.  A child grows up in a cocoon of security.  He or she lives in the parents' house, enjoying the protection of the "family."   Then, one day, the child leaves the "nest."   He or she ventures out on a journey of maturity, where mother and father no longer provide the shelter, security or constant vigil over them.  
         For many, leaving the security of "home"  is a scary day.  Perhaps the scariest of all days.  It is the day a child realizes he or she is "alone" and "responsible" for their own behavior.   When a child and leaves the "nest of security," the world is often cold and frightening, brusque and rough.    Often, the child gets his or her nose bloodied.  He or she makes mistakes and must huddle in the quiet of the dark to figure out the solution--unable to wrap his or her arms around mommy or daddy or have them comfort and protect them.
         September 11 was a day like that.  On that day, the terrorists smashed their planes into America's immaturity, forcing us "out of the nest of comfort and security" and thrust us into the cold reality of a brutal world that will indiscriminately kill women and children without blinking an eye.  It was the day we realized there are those filled with such hatred they would terrorize the weak and helpless from the shadows of darkness and then scuttle away in the aftermath to seek more darkness to hide within until the day or night arose where it decided to strike out again, and again.
          September 11 was a day America was supposed to grow up.
          But no one really wants to "grow up."   America, as a nation, is no different. 
          After hundreds of years of developing the richest, safest, most powerful nation in the world, who among us wants to think a third-world tyrant can make us quiver, or turn our spines into Jell-O?
          Instead, many of us chalk up the experience of September 11 as a tragic day in our history.  We begin to push aside the anthrax scares as the work of some frustrated terrorist trying to capitalize on the disaster.    We grow tired of the news telling us nothing can be done, that we are ill-prepared as a nation to fight it.   So, we turn off MSNBC and switch on the World Series.  We can hardly wait for the new television programs to launch so they will take our mind off this "Terrorism News" that has gone on now for over fifty days non-stop. 
          We ask:  "Will it ever end?  When can we get back to "normal?"
                                               IT'S SCARY TO FORGET TO REMEMBER
         This "Complacency" makes Oct. 31 the scariest day of the year for me not because it is Halloween, but because it is another day when thousands of Americans are slip off the slope of Vigilance and slide into the quagmire of Complacency.
         It is a day when thousands of people are making the decision that since we have bombed the Evil One and shown the world we can and will retaliate against terrorism, these "external actions" provide sufficient warning to future terrorists that if they try and attack America again, we will pulverize them into ashes also.
        At the same moment, the Attorney General announces the impending attack of more terrorism.  
        Whom do we believe?  Do we believe our gut feeling that we need to get on with life and put this terrorism behind us, this paranoia, this fear of fright, or, do we huddle in the caves of self-imposed fear in Two Boots, Montana where the last terrorist we saw was a bearded motorcyclist with California license plates?
                                                        S0LUTION TO THE DILEMMA
         I believe the simple solution to this dilemma is to form the Parents of Vigilance.  Our nation's battle with Terrorism is not focused in the Middle East as we might want to believe, but rather in our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities.  Terrorism has two faces--the external and internal.   And it takes many forms to weaken and destroy us
         The child who is scared of people, or frightened he or she is too fat, too thin, not smart enough, not rich enough, not liked enough--suffers a Terrorism that is far deeper than the fear of anthrax or a World Trade Center repeat bombing.
         The battle with Terrorism begins within a child's sense of "security" as a person.  The Parents Of Vigilance is about preparing a child to cross the threshold of manhood or womanhood with pride and dignity, to make them ready to deal with Fear, Intimidation and Complacency in all aspects of their lives.  It's not just about preparing for anthrax or bombings from crazed enemies from afar.   The attacks on September 11 awakened us to a much more important issue--strengthening the resolve of our children to fight Terrorism within.
                                  REBUILDING A NATION OF PRIDE AND DIGNITY
         If we use the tragedy wisely, we can rebuild in our youth a pride and dignity that will help reduce crime, violence in our school and stifle growing drug usage among teens.   Vigilance of a parent toward his or her children can only help sew the fabric of the family back stronger.   Such an effort is not based in Defensive Paranoia, but rather Offensive Growth.   By growing closer to the innermost fears and feelings of our children-- creating Sentinels of Vigilance that stand to protect them from the enemies of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency both "within and without"--we turn tragedy into victory;  we salute rather and bury those who died on the Second Tuesday of September.
        On this, the Fiftieth Day Plus of Ground Zero, I ask you to think about not turning away from the events of September 11 as moment in time--but rather to view them as a lesson for the future.   Let September 11 stand as your moment of awakening.  Let it be the moment you,  as a parent, commit to help your child, your grandchild, your niece, your nephew, your cousins and loved ones grow stronger, prouder, more self-sufficient human beings who can fight Terrorism in every quarter with a champion attitude, and champion result.
        Let this Halloween be your reminder the scariest day of the year is the day we "want to forget" what happened on September 11 and the reasons why it happened.  If we do forget, the victims are our children and their children children's children, and we, who forgot to remember, become the real terrorists.