GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Jan. 14, 2004 -- In a few days the President of the United States will deliver his State of the Union address.  It will set the tone of leadership and express the goals of a nation struggling to conquer Terrorism with Vigilance.

      The President's speech will reflect many issues.  It will be like looking into a diamond with many facets.  Some will see the brilliance of the goals, others will defy and refute them.   This is the magnificence of a democracy, for the right to agree or disagree is the bedrock of freedom.
       However, there is one point the President can make that is immune to any valid criticism.   That point is the need for America and the world to become a Global Family of Vigilance, a family whose leaders--parents, grandparents, citizens, loved ones, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and cousins--all seek to assure the children are safe and secure from the threats posed by the Beast of Terror.
       The Beast of Terror poses two threats to the children of the world.  One is physical and the other emotional.
       On the physical side, there is the constant concern about children being maimed, wounded or rendered motherless or fatherless by bombs, bullets and indiscriminate chemical or biological attacks that threaten the issue of future generations.
       Then there is the more nefarious side of the Beast of Terror, the one that gnaws and cripples the children's emotional security.    Emotional Terrorism seeks to instill in a child Fear, Intimidation and Complacency by ripping away the roots of love and respect for the child's welfare.
       Emotional Terrorism ranges from the abusive parent telling a child to "shut up" or hurling cruel invectives such as "I wish you were never born," to the inconsiderate rebuff of "don't bother me now, I'm busy."

        Children are easily bruised.   Their need for being loved and cared for, their thirst to be treated as treasures, to be held and hugged and to feel safety and security from their parents and loved ones, is as endless as infinity itself.
        But Terrorism--the presence of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency--often rips away the fruits of parental love.    When parents become more concerned with their own lives, more selfish about their own needs over those of their children, the children suffer.  They take the back seat.   In some cases they become the punching bag to their parent's own obsession with Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
       The result is a child riddled with different forms of Terrorism of the emotional ilk.   At the extreme, such a child may grow into a bully and seek crime as an occupation.   At another extreme the child may develop into a physical child or spouse abuser.  At another level, this child may end up the CEO of a large corporation, cooking the books and robbing people of hard-earned savings without a blink of compassion for his victims.    Still others may skulk about in life, fearful and intimidated by the shadows of all around them, gluing themselves to the walls of life as they move about, victims of their upbringing, Terrorized by the idea of their lack of self-worth, feeling they have been morally tainted, abandoned and cast into life's turgid sea.
         Family Terrorism is, without question, America's and the world's greatest threat.   It results in children who are fodder for the Beast of Terror, who become ripe fruits for the Beast to pluck and turn into "victims" who feel the difference between a rut and a grave is the depth, who consider themselves a nail and the world a hammer.
        While Iraq looms as the symbol of Physical Terrorism to America, the presence of Emotional Terrorism stands on an equal dais.    The fight America has embraced against Physical Terrorism is the first chapter in a long battle to unearth and repair the Terror Cells that exist within all Americans, and all parents throughout the world.

        That's why President Bush's State of the Union address should be a State of the Family Union address.
        He should call on all of us to fight the true roots of Terrorism--Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.     But, he faces an uphill battle.    The last of the Triads of Terrorism--Complacency--works against him.
        Most nations view Terrorism based on where the last bomb or bullet struck an innocent.   They duck and weave the duty and responsibility to cleanse Terrorism from their lands as long as suicide bombers aren't blowing up their people, or their icons aren't targeted as Ground Zeros.
        But, they are breeding grounds nevertheless.
        Unless nations think in parental terms they will continue to isolate themselves by political, religious, national, ethnic and economic lines--seeking to avoid alliances on the ground that the Beast will not attack them if they don't raise their heads out of the trenches.
        The truth is that Fear, Intimidation and Complacency are consuming their children with the same voracity as it does the children in the embattled nations.   Terrorism doesn't work just because it bombs or maims.  It works because it threatens to bomb and maim.
        A child, for example, can be Terrorized by the threat of a parent withdrawing his or her love and affection with more impact than what a slap across the face, or the twisting of an arm might create.    Children waiting for the parent's loving hug and instead getting cold indifference suffers the same as someone being stretched on a torture rack.    A beautiful home in a safe neighborhood may become a dungeon, a prison of Terror for a child who feels alienated, disenfranchised and abandoned by his parent's emotional arms or their concern for the child's feelings.

       President Bush has the opportunity to speak to the world about Family Vigilance and attacking the Beast of Terror who threatens our "Internal" as well as our "External" security.
        One of the issues on the table in relation to this subject is a pressing concern for strengthening the concept of marriage in America.    The Administration has proposed a $1.5 billion to help couples develop "healthy marriages."
        Part of this proposal is to counter the trend toward recognizing gay marriages, and to reinforce the foundation of parental responsibility.
        With an average of half the marriages in America ending in divorce, the fractured nature of the family unit has risen to the priority level for national concern.
        What is it that destroys a family's solidarity?   
        The obvious answer is the diminished value of the duty the parents assume through marriage to the future security of their children, and their Children's Children's Children.
        When a parent becomes myopic and sees only his or her selfish needs consuming his or her actions, the family suffers.   The goal of strengthening the family's emotional security falls to the wayside, and the individual's hunger to sate his or her own desires overpowers the needs of the children and the family unit.

       This is the work of the Beast of Terror.   To divide is to conquer.   A Terrorist releasing a bomb in a shopping mall hopes to drive the citizens of that community into shells of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
         A parent who either physically or emotionally abandons his or her family's needs drives the family into similar Shells of Terror.    Family arguments, family violence, family abuse creates the same battle zone we see in Iraq's most dangerous streets.  
         What is the solution?
         Funding, of course, is a first step.    It puts economic teeth into the goal of strengthening the family unit through education.
        But what is the source of the education?
        What can we teach a parent or potential parent about the duty of parenthood?
        That's where President Bush has a golden opportunity to present a challenge to not only America, but the world.
        In his State of the Union Speech, he can call upon the citizens not only of America but the world to join in the Family of Vigilance.
        This Family of Vigilance is made up of parents and relatives who believe that the most important battle being fought today it to expel the Beast of Terror from the minds of all children.

      Family Vigilance is about each parent, citizen and loved one taking the Pledge of Vigilance--a pledge that commits the parents of the world to join together to replace our children's Fear with Courage, to expand their Conviction so it overpowers their Intimidation, and to teach then that Right Actions that benefit future generations of children throughout the world is the countermeasure to Complacency, the idea or attitude that we can have no impact on the future so therefore we do nothing.
         President Bush can call upon America and the world to fight the real Terrorism that haunts our land, and the lands of all nations.   It is the breeding of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency in our children by neglect or intent.   He can call on us all to fight the Beast of Generational Terrorism by taking the Pledge of Family Vigilance and vowing to teach our children not the acts of Terrorism that result in Fear, Intimidation and Complacency, but the acts of Vigilance that foster Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for the benefit of the Children's Children's Children.
       Parents who take such a vow commit to put their selfish interests to the side in favor of the greater interest of their children, and their Children's Children's Children.
       Such parents separate their personal, political, religious, ethnic and economic differences in favor of protecting all children, regardless of race, color or creed.   These parents do not breed hatred in their children, or teach them by actions or design how to destroy others, or to shatter fundamental institutions that provide stability for children, such as marriage.

      If it is true that a Terrorist is trained to hate and taught to destroy with indiscriminate concern, then it follows that a Sentinel of Vigilance is trained to defend and to have the Courage, Conviction and take the Right Actions that protect the innocent from being victims of such Terrorism.
      Only when we fight Terrorism with Vigilance can we truly say we are winning the war on Terrorism.   Only when we can count the numbers of Sentinels of Family Vigilance will we have a clear idea how many of us have made a stand against the Beast of Terror who breeds in the womb of our Complacency.
      If President Bush calls upon the world to join in becoming a Family of Vigilance to fight the Beast of Terror in behalf of the Children's Children's Children, he will do more to win the war on Terrorism than any capture of Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden might.
      And, if he goes a step farther, and personally takes the Pledge of Vigilance, and calls upon all the leaders of the world to take a similar pledge, he will set an example for the world to follow.
      Finally, if President Bush's proposal for expending $1.5 billion to strengthening the family through marriage isn't to be wasted, he will require all who pass through whatever training to subscribe to the Principles of Vigilance, and to take the Pledge of Vigilance in behalf of their Children's Children's Children.
      

Jan. 13--The Great Secret of Vigilance Is Not Political Terrorism