GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Oct. 28, 2003-- There's a woman who celebrates Liberty from Terrorism twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  She's been doing it for 117 years.
      To some, she is a beautiful woman.   To others, she is an ugly witch, a symbol of Terrorism that must be attacked, destroyed and squashed under the heel of those who despise her strength and power.
      She is not like most women.

    Her nose, for example, is four-feet six-inches long.  Her index finger extends eight feet.  Her waist measures 35 feet.
      In 1986, she underwent an $87 million face and body lift, restoring her beauty--and to some, her ugliness--into pristine order.
      At 250,000 pounds, she's not overweight because she's superbly proportioned, standing 305.1 feet high from the ground to the tip of the glowing torch she hoists for all the world to see.
      Her name is Liberty.  She is commonly called the Statue of Liberty.
      For the past 117 years, she has become the world's Sentinel of Vigilance for Freedom, a signet to all who cast their eyes upon her that the world has options to oppression, tyranny, Terrorism and servitudes of all shapes and sizes.

     On October 28, 1886, the French-built statue that was shipped to the United States as a gift in 350 individual pieces boxed in 214 crates, was unveiled to the world.   France presented it to America as a gift of friendship over the American Revolution.
      Today, it is one of the prime targets of Terrorists.
      Nothing would please them more than to cripple, maim or utterly destroy Lady Liberty.
      Millions of people from the four corners of the earth have found their way past Lady Liberty since the statue's presence in New York Harbor.
      America has become a melting pot of nations, offering opportunities unlike any other country in the modern world.   Its success as nation of free peoples and laws that favor anyone with the will to succeed despite their backgrounds, color, race, ethnicity, religious preferences is evidenced by the potpourri of its demographics.
       The poorest can come to America and become the richest.   The most underprivileged can become the privileged.
       No single group hates the idea that Freedom and Liberty for all can be achieved virtually in one generation than Terrorism.
       Terrorism is about smashing Freedom.
       Its nature is to rule others through Fear, Intimidation and Complacency--to turn people's hopes and dreams into nightmares and subservience.
       Freedom, on the other hand, is about breeding Courage, Conviction and the ability to take the Right Actions that benefit the Children's Children's Children.   It is about the right to change any flaw or error in the chemistry of society that ultimately impinges on the rights of future generations.
       America, while not perfect in its structure, has the most flexibility in its political, social and economic systems to allow any individual or group to rise to a state of equality with all other individuals or groups by earning that right in the field of competition.
       The most recent example of such a change has been the Vietnamese who took shelter in the United States a generation ago.    They have risen fast among the social, political and economic ladders Lady Liberty provides any group and are now returning to their former country as doctors, lawyers, capitalists, missionaries--reinforcing the power of America to help individuals evolve to the maximum of their dreams.

      Two years ago the Torch of Liberty ignited once again.   It scorched the feet of Terrorism in two nations--Afghanistan and, most recently, Iraq.   Critics of America's policy of "liberation" rail against the right of Lady Liberty to shine her light on those who live under the shadows of tyranny and oppression.
       But, those who understand history and the Rights of Vigilance, know that Lady Liberty is not just an American symbol.   She belongs to the world.  In 1984, the United Nations deemed the Statue of Liberty a World Heritage Site.
       I give Lady Liberty credit for my vision of the Sentinels of Vigilance.
       When I was at Ground Zero during the attack on September 11, 2001, I was sure I was about to die.  When the buildings collapsed, and I and thousands of others standing nearby were covered in a blanket of ghostly ash, I sucked in what I was sure was my last breath.
       Just before I did, I clutched the women next to me, whom I had shoved against a wall to protect them from the debris rocketing past, and listened to their cries:  "We're all going to die...we're all going to die..."   Something inside me soothed the moment of death, and made me respond:  "If we're going to die, think of something beautiful...think of something beautiful."

       The next sight I saw as I made my way toward the epicenter was what I believe today to be the Spirits of Vigilance rising up out of the ash....floating above Ground Zero, forming a Ring of Vigilance.
        I sat down with my computer and began to write about them--these Sentinels of Vigilance, men and women from all lands and nations, from the rich to the poor, the educated and uneducated, the people from all four corners of the earth, standing guard as Lady Liberty over Ground Zero.

       I saw them form the Circle of Vigilance, hand-in-hand, not unlike the Statue of Liberty, looking out to the horizon, reminding us all that Terrorism must be guarded against by the Vigilant.
       I have written more than 1.4 million words about Vigilance...a small drop in a large bucket of the need to protect the Liberty of our children, and the Right to Liberty of our world from the shadow of the Beast of Terror.
       On Memorial Day following the attack on the World Trade Center, the Terrorists threatened to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and other icons in New York and across the nation.
       I went to the Statue of Liberty that day, and interviewed those who braved the day despite the threats.   Families were aboard the tour boat, showing their children that to run from Terrorism, to be fearful of Terrorism's threats, was playing into the hands of the Beast of Terror who feeds on Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
       I walked the Brooklyn Bridge that day, and peered out to the Statue of Liberty.    I recognized her as the physical symbol of Vigilance, while the Sentinels of Vigilance ringing Ground Zero represent a more mystical, a more spiritual symbol of the need for all of us to emboss our Rights of Liberty with newer Rights of Vigilance.
       The Pledge of Vigilance below I designed is one more way we can all salute the Statue of Liberty, and what it truly means.  It means more than just Liberty--it means Vigilance.  It means we cannot afford to allow our Fears, our Intimidations or Complacencies to rob us of our individual or collective duties to protect the Children, and their Children's Children's Children from Terrorism's tyranny. 
        The Beast will come again.
        He is not gone.   He lives in our neighborhoods, disguised as drugs, or depression, or crime, or self depreciation, or that feeling of worthlessness, or a sense of victimization.

        Liberty is about shining the light of freedom on not just people, but upon our inner selves.  It is about freeing us from the bondage of our selves, those restraints we think hobble us, cripple us from achieving great things.
        Many of us in America and the world find ourselves trapped in what we call ruts of defeat.  We give up on evolving, thinking we are worthless, or not as good as, or not as gifted as, or not as able as others.   We become slaves to the Beast of Mental Terror, that Beast who drives nails in our self-made coffins, who grinds us down with his heel as though we were ants.
       The Statue of Liberty is far more than an icon or symbol.  It is a radiant light, shining to remind us that our Terrorisms begin within.   To fight them, we must become Sentinels of Vigilance.  We must rise above our own dark corners, and Lady Liberty is there to free us if we are willing to see her as the key Sentinel of Vigilance.
       I must remember that nearly half of the people killed in the World Trade Centers were from different lands, different nations.    We tend to think the attack on the Twin Towers killed just "Americans," but the truth is that building was rich with people from all four corners of the earth.  The attack was upon the world, not just America.  And the Sentinels of Vigilance, the Spirits of Vigilance, who rose above Ground Zero and remain in a Circle of Vigilance represent--as Lady Liberty--the world, not just America.

      So today, on the 117th Anniversary of the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, I salute her.   My salute is aimed not only at her, but at the nearly 3,000 Sentinels of Vigilance who hove a few hundred yards away at Ground Zero.
      They are all reminders we are Parents of Vigilance, and that our Pledge of Vigilance is an endorsement to all Terrorists that we will not let the Beast of Terror rob us of our Liberty.
      Semper Vigilantes Lady Liberty.
      Keep your eye on the horizon--and remind us all to do the same.   Only when the Beast of Terror realizes he is being illuminated will he run the other way.  Keep your Torch of Liberty bright.

Oct. 27--Fighting The Brush Fires Of Terrorism

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The Pledge Of Vigilance