GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Jan. 8, 2004 -- You know the screw is tightening when members of the family turn against their own relatives by putting a bounty on their heads.  It's a lesson all Parents of Vigilance can apply to helping protect their children from the Beast of Emotional Terrorism.

       Let's look at the lesson coming from Saudi Arabia.    Terrorists no longer can skulk about in the shadows of the state and plot and plan their next attacks with impunity.    The Terrorists made a fatal mistake.  They bit the hand that fed them.  Now, the citizens of Saudi Arabia are hunting down the Terrorists within their state with the same passion Americans are.   And, they've gone a step farther.  They've laced the hunt with gold.
        The Western World often thinks that people Middle East are cut from the same bolt of jihad cloth and that Terrorizing the "infidels" is an accepted way of life.
        Perhaps a thread of truth exists in that belief, but whatever once was is no longer.   The Terrorists made a giant error that shifted Saudi thinking from Complacency against Terrorists to out-and-out bounty hunting them down and killing them.
        On May 12 and November 8 of this year the Terrorists launched suicide bomb attacks against the Saudis, killing 53, mostly Arabs.  Nine Americans died also.
        Newspapers in the kingdom splash the pictures of 26 most-wanted men linked to the attack.  The bounty on information leading to each capture is 1 million Saudi rials ($267,000 U.S.)

       But, the price on Terrorism's head doesn't stop there.   If someone supplies a lead that ferrets out a Terrorist cell, the reward is $1,867,000.   And, for information leading to the foiling of a Terrorist attack, the pay-off is $1,333,000.
        The public pressure and rewards for hunting down and exposing Terrorists within Saudi Arabia is a major departure for the state.  In the past, it has attempted to remain "neutral" so it didn't align itself with the West and alienate its fundamentalist sector, much of which is anti-West.
        Even when 15 of the 19 hijackers who launched the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States were found to be Saudi citizens, there was no outcry within the community.
        But when the Terrorists turned their guns and bombs and plots against Saudi citizens, threatening their own people with indiscriminate violence, the screw squeaked and turned.
        Now, there is a major hunt underway for the Al Qaeda Terrorists spanning every nook and cranny of the kingdom.    It has the generic support of the entire state, including the fundamentalists.

        What this suggests is that each of us may be subject to a state of Complacency over fighting our own Beast of Terror in our own homes and lives until one day that Beast turns on us and sheds our own blood.
        That might be too late to act.
        Parents who assume their children a "happy" and "safe" and "secure" and find themselves too busy to sit down with their kids and find out about their Fears, Intimidations and Complacencies about life may be like the Saudis were before the Terrorists turned on them.
        It is easy for all of us to ignore the issues of being a Sentinel of Vigilance, constantly on the look out for signs of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency within ourselves and loved ones.    It is hard work to be scanning our lives in search for tracks left by the Beast of Terror.  It is even harder sometimes to stop and take the time to effect the Courage to overcome the Fear, the Conviction to quash the Intimidation, and to take the Right Actions that benefit future generations rather than succumb to Complacency, denial and acceptance of "the way things are."

         Saudi Arabia tried to dance that delicate line.  It tried to remain neutral until one day the bombs and bullets exploded in their faces.  Now, they wield a harsh hand.  More than 300 Terror suspects since May of 2003 to the end of the year have been detained or killed as the Saudi's seek to rid their land of the Beast of Terror.
        Parents of Vigilance don't wait for the Terrorism within a child to erupt.   They head it off early, defuse the Beast's fangs, and replace the venom of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency with the antidotes of Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for future generations.
         Simply put, Parents, Grandparents and Loved Ones of Vigilance talk with their children frequently about what's going on inside them--about how they're facing their Fears, Intimidations and Complacencies.
         They don't wait for the principal of the school to call and tell them "there's a problem," or wonder whether their kids are doing drugs or have sex or running with the "wrong crowd."    Parents of Vigilance build bridges of Trust between themselves and their offspring, a sort of intelligence network that connects the parent to brewing Terror Cells trying to take seed in the child's mind.

       First, they establish what we call:  Sentinel Time.    Sentinel time includes those moments each day when parent and child spend quiet time to talk about the day.   It is the time when the parent leads off by talking about how he or she overcame some of their Fears, Intimidations and Complacencies.   Such communication could be as mundane as Dad talking about how mad he got at a car on the freeway that cut him off, and how he handled his anger because he thought about something important, like his child's smile or the vacation that the family is going on soon.  Dad tells his child he overcame his Intimidation by another with Conviction that being happy was more important than feeling mad.
        Then, it's the child's turn to share something that happened to him or her, and how it was resolved.
        Sentinel Time is a tool to open the gate within a child's feelings and span it so the child feels safe in sharing what's going on in his or her life.   It provides both parent and child the opportunity to help each other, for children often have wonderful solutions to life's adult challenges, and over time, children can become the Sentinel of Vigilance for adults, just as adults can help children pave the rocks from their road.
       The second way a parent can help a child hunt down Emotional Terrorism is to put a bounty on it.
       If we take a page out of the reward-for-information book that TerrorHunters use, a child can receive a pay off for fighting his or her Terrorism.    During Sentinel Time, a child can receive a quarter for each Emotional Terror he or she overcame, capped of course so the more capitalistic of children won't break the family bank.

      Say a child faced the Fear of taking a test and talks about the Fear of Failure, or the Fear of not being "as smart as," and tells how he or she mustered the Courage to overcome the Fear.    That may be worth a quarter, or a dish of ice cream, or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, or perhaps a giant hug.
        Sentinel Time offers parents, guardians and loved ones an opportunity to dig deep into the caverns of a child's mind, those darker places where Terrorism breeds.   A shy child, for example, might share with a parent during Sentinel Time how he or she raised his or her hand in class, and how hard it was to do it, but how good she or he felt once the hand was raised.
        A parent might share how he or she was so nervous about submitting a report or meeting with the boss, and how they thought of the importance of not letting Fear and Intimidation rule their lives, and overcame those feelings.
       A Sentinel of Vigilance is constantly aware of the walls that exist between people and the necessity of breaking down those walls.
       Rewards help us motivate ourselves to leap over them, or crawl under them, or to find ways around such walls.  Sentinel Time with a child reminds the child that he or she is not alone in this world of shadows and things that go bump in the night.    The child learns quickly that when a parent or guardian is there to supply Shields and Swords of Vigilance to help him or her fight the Beasts of Terror, the odds are the Beast will be exposed and will seek more favorable places where Fear, Intimidation and Complacency is allowed to fester.
         Saudi Arabia has elected to use Sentinel Time in the form of rewards.   The citizens of the community don't want their children and loved ones attacked, maimed, killed by those who once used the shelter of their society to plot the demise of others.

       If we look at Saudi Arabia and learn a lesson from it, we realize that the Beast of Terror will not leave us alone no matter how protected we think we are from its wrath.
       Only when we vow to ferret out Terrorism, and only when we become Sentinels of Vigilance with the goal of protecting our children and their Children's Children's Children from harm, will we really be on the road to expelling Terrorism from our lives, and the lives of our loved ones.
        Reward yourself today.  Take the Pledge of Vigilance.   Start your Sentinel Time first with yourself, and then with your children.   Take a daily inventory on how many times you overcame Fear with Courage, Intimidation with Conviction, and Complacency with Right Actions for the future generations.  
        Then, share those feelings with those you love the most.
        The ultimate reward will be a safer life, a freer life, a happier life for yourself and all those around you.