GROUND ZERO, New York City, Feb. 5--The Beast of Terror is stalking new territory in New York City.  It has found a new lair in the up-scale dog runs of Manhattan's posh West Side.  And, it would love to rip the throat out of Vigilance, and shake it madly for the world to see who's really in charge.

        Dog Run Terrorism came to light the other day when I was talking to a friend of mine who recently purchased a Tibetan Terrier.   The Tibetan Terrier looks like it was designed by a Madison Avenue ad agency specifically for fashion models to carry down the walkway.   Its silken hair hangs over its face in a design that only the finest coiffeur could produce, and its Walt Disney "purity" appearance radiates its history as a sacred animal raised exclusively for 2000 years by lamas in the monasteries of Tibet.  The dog's sole purpose is to bring prosperity and good luck to its owner.
       Tibetan Terriers are considered "charm bringers" and living four-leafed clovers.  Historically, they've always been given as gifts. 
       To sell one was considered a violation of their sacred nature.  
       If a foreigner or dignitary was traveling through Tibet, a Tibetan Terrier would be given to the party to safeguard their hazardous and treacherous journey out of Tibet.  
        The loving canines have been given nicknames such as "The Good Luck Dog," "Dog of Prosperity," or, "The little people of Tibet."  One doesn't own such a dog; one becomes its caretaker, guarding it from the ills of the world.  Essentially, its caretaker becomes the Parent of Vigilance over the dog, guarding it from the Beast of Terror who would love to rip out its entrails.
       Reality smacks, however, especially in the Big Apple.  To own a Tibetan Terrier in New York City foils the principles of peace and prosperity of its Tibetan monastery legacy.  
      Dr. A.R.H. Grieg was responsible for the breed's introduction to the West. She was given several dogs, the first by a grateful patient, and by the Dalai Lama himself. She brought the first one to England in 1927.
       The Tibetan Terrier didn't enter the United States until 1956. It was given as a gift to Patsy Murphy, by her father.  In 1957 Dr. Grieg sent others as gifts to Alice Murphy, Patsy's mother.
       This brings us to my friend, whom I will call Jimmy, some 37 years after the first "Dog of Prosperity" landed in America.  
       Jimmy purchased his Tibetan Terrier to bring him closer to inner peace and inner prosperity.   It was a gift from him to him.   He said he needed to learn to love a little more, and the beauty of the Tibetan Terrier's nature and personality demands that it be loved.  Jimmy is middle aged, venturing forth on a "second life."   He's looking for all the "good" this time around.

     His work is laid out for him. Owners of the Tibetans are their caretakers.  Like the monks who bred them thousands of years ago, Jimmy's job is to protect his beautiful creature from the ills of the outside world.  Whether he wants the role or not, it comes with the dog.
     Some "caretakers"  believe that "world peace and prosperity" is pregnant inside the soul of the dog, and, by attending to the dog's safety and security, such a caretaker will become more in harmony with himself and the world.  In other words, what the dog has is contagious.  The "love" allegedly rubs off.
       So, when my friend Jimmy takes his Tibetan Terrier out for a walk on the streets of New York City, it's kind of like throwing  a fresh-born baby into a feeding frenzy of Great White Sharks.    In Manhattan there are over 853,000 dogs, lots of room for a Beast of Terror Canine to slip into the crowd.
       Anyone who trudges the sidewalks of Manhattan knows a little about city dogs.  They range from great snarling beasts being restrained by their owners so they don't chomp chunks of flesh out of those who pass too close, to little naked mouse-like yappers whose owners  constantly worry if someone will step on their pet and reduce it to a bloody blotch.
       Where I live, in the East Village, the predominate dog-on-leash is not one designed to create love and happiness and prosperity.   No, it's quite the opposite.   It's the Pit Bull, an animal bred to lock its jaws on a throat and chew until there isn't any life left in its victim.  The animal's name itself--Pit Bull--is synonymous with Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il.

        Moving uptown, toward either the East or West Side (both face Central Park), the Pit Bull dissipates and is replaced with more "loving" dogs of the ilk attributed to the Tibetan Terrier--non-aggressive lap-type dogs whose nature is to lick you to death..   Owners in the Upper West and East Side of the city seem more concerned with appearances than personal protection.   They have evolved environmentally (and economically) from the madding crowds.  To them, a dog is not necessarily used as a sidearm as is often the case in the East Village, Harlem or Washington Heights.
      Dog run etiquette is, however, the same in all areas.  Peace is the guideline.  
      New York City, like most space-jammed  major cities, has little open spaces.  Dogs are not encouraged or allowed to romp on them.  They are for humans who crawl over the sidewalks or roadways in search of a blade of green grass to remind them life exists beyond the concrete jungle.  They don't appreciate the smell of  dog waste mixed into the grass odor.
       Ergo, the city is laced with dog runs.  They are small fenced enclosures with double gates where apartment dwellers bring their animals to exercise and commune with other dogs.  It's a sort of canine United Nations.
                            (For dog run information in the New York City area go to  www.urbanhound.com  )

          Terror Dogs are not allowed.
       Terror Dogs are not a breed.   Rather they are the result of poor parenting, bad management, and Complacent ownership. A Terror Dog thinks the dog runs were built for one purpose, to bring it  a herd of other dogs it can beat up at will, while its Complacent "guardian" stands by doing nothing.
       Jimmy encountered such a Terror Dog the other day.
       But, before I tell you about it, let's profile Jimmy.   Jimmy spent his life as a general contractor, running construction crews.   The nature of being a foreman with grunting, sweating hard-labor workers doesn't smooth out one's personality.   Such a profession can turn one into a bastard rasper, with sharp rough edges designed to rip the skin off anyone who isn't doing his or her job or is dragging the project's completion by  moving too slowly.  So Jimmy has what one might call a "hair trigger temper." It has been honed from years of barking and growling like a Pit Bull at those who respond only to the whip and crack of command.

       Retired due to a work-related disability, Jimmy is trying to sand off some of the rough edges of his past.  He dedicates himself daily to learning the art of serenity so he doesn't fall back into the old habits of seeing everyone as the nail, and his primary job as the "hammer."
        His Tibetan Terrier purchase was skillfully designed to help him learn to be a "loving caretaker." He is taking the role seriously, protecting his pet as a monk might the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Terrier.
        This effort to be a force of calmness in a tornado of human interaction is often like trying to mix oil and water.  Jimmy believes the dog has been his teacher, helping him find peace and tranquility within his turbulence.   His dog is more than a pet, it is his living reminder that there are ways to live life without violence, anger, rage and righteous and, in ultimate Tibetan principles, indignation that the world is not spinning at 1,000 miles an hour around his axis.

      Not everyone who goes to a New York City dog runs enters them as Jimmy does--intending to bring peace and joy to the world.  Some enter the dog runs with little or no concern for "peace on earth."  Some enter with the same Terroristic intents as Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong Il might a room full of plutonium--eager to take everything and leave nothing.
       So the other day, Jimmy related, a woman brought in two greyhounds to his local dog run.    One of them started to attack his Tibetan Terrier.    Jimmy, trying to restrain his tongue, kindly asked the lady to control her dog.  The lady told Jimmy the recalcitrant canine wasn't hers, and had recently been adopted by a friend, and she was merely taking it out as a favor with her dog.
       In a few minutes, the greyhound attacked Jimmy's "Dog of Prosperity" again, this time gnawing on its neck.
       Jimmy again took heavy deep breaths, trying to swallow his urge to scream and shout at the woman and attack her dog in retaliation.   But, as the Dalai Lama on a mission of peace, he again calmly approached the woman asking her firmly but respectfully to leash the dog since she couldn't control it.
       "Dogs are just dogs," the woman snarled angrily. 
       Now, Jimmy's serenity was in deep trouble.   Years of solving problems with the brass knuckles of his tongue, and, if necessary, with his fists, boiled to the surface.   He stuffed the primal urges to humiliate the woman into taking the dog out of the dog run.
       Suddenly, the greyhound bounded toward Jimmy's Terrier and commenced to maul it.   As he had previously, Jimmy chased the greyhound away.  He spun angrily toward the woman and  in top construction manager rage shouted:  "Are you stupid, lady?  Are you stupid?  Control that dog or I'll call the park ranger."
        Jimmy doesn't like his Beast of Terror to escape.   But, it did.   He shook with anger, not out of Fear or Intimidation, but to control his muscles from assaulting the dog's owner whom he considered a clear and present danger to all.  She was Osama bin Laden incarnate.  Her dog was a Terrorist.
        Before he totally exploded, Jimmy grabbed his dog and left the dog run.   He retreated to the monastery of serenity, to the streets.   As he was waiting at the light so he could cross the street, he felt someone behind him. He turned.  It was the woman with the two greyhounds.
        Jimmy decided to assuage his anger and resentment, and, in keeping with Tibetan principles of harmony, chose to apologize to the woman for calling her "stupid."   As the apology escaped his mouth, the woman began to berate him again, stirring once more Jimmy's riled Beast of Terror.
        So much for good deeds, Jimmy thought, fast-walking across the street and hoping to never see the woman or her dogs again.

       When he related the story to me a few hours later during a phone conversation, I laughed.  "You did good, Jimmy, you didn't hit her or kill her dog.  There was no bloodshed.   You're growing, man.  Look at what you could have done but didn't.  You are a Lama of peace and prosperity."
          I thought about what Jimmy had undergone.   Despite the rage and anger that he felt, he didn't act on his emotions.  He constrained his Beast of Terror, not once, but at least four times.
        Had the woman with the greyhounds been able to look into a prism of Jimmy's personality and past behavior, she would have fled from the dog run for her life after the first attack.  She had no idea what Jimmy could have done.  But I did, because I know Jimmy.  And Jimmy does, because he is Jimmy.  Jimmy knows we all have a Beast of Terror and  he is willing to be a Citizen of Vigilance.
        I figured his restraint was in part due to his caretaking role he has assumed with his Tibetan Terrier.  
        If one is to believe 2000 years of history, his dog's genes have been passed on for two millenniums in an attempt to salve the soul of the Beast of Terror.   The dog's love and the caretaker's love meet to neutralize the Beast of Terror.  Why else would the Dalai Lama have one?

       There are those who believe the Tibetan Terrier is God incarnate, or Goodness incarnate.  They believe Vigilance was bred into the Tibetan Terrier so the monks who become recipients of them can better control their own human defects--manage their Pride, Anger, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Greed and Sloth--the seven faults of all humans so they might evolve above them.
         Jimmy could have easily purchased a Pit Bull and fed his Beast of Terror.   But something guided him to the Tibetan Terrier.  
         He purchased a Sentinel of Vigilance, not a Beast of Terror.
         He chose a canine whose singular purpose in life is to teach him serenity, to bring to him what it has brought the monks in Tibet for hundreds and hundreds of years--the idea of selflessness over selfishness; the belief that Courage can overpower Fear;  that Conviction can muffle Intimidation;  that Right Actions can and will replace Complacency.
         A few weeks earlier he had related a story to me about how his dog  bolted into the street and how he dashed out after it unconcerned about the roaring yellow cabs rocketing in his direction, or the Mack trucks growling his way.   He scooped the frightened Tibetan Terrier out of harm's way and returned her safely to the sidewalk on the other side of the street.
          He told me how that was different behavior for him these days.  In the past, he said, he probably would not have risked life and limb for any animal, but his role as "guardian" overpowered his own concerns.  He said he didn't even think about himself when ran to get the dog.
          That, to me, is the ultimate sign of a Sentinel of Vigilance.  He was more concerned with the future of the Children's Children's Children's future than his own.  In this case, the dog was his child.
          His actions were in stark contrast to the woman with greyhounds.  She  gave little concern about her friend's dog who Terrorized other dogs and threatened their welfare.  Complacency ruled her.
         I told Jimmy the woman really was "stupid," and, to further the point, that she was "stupidly selfish."
         She reminded me of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jon Il.  Both leaders have the duty to be guardians of the children of their nations, but both don't seem to care much about unleashing the Beast of Terror in their own dog runs, or much about the safety and security of other dog runs.
         Both leaders are also stupidly selfish about power.   They risk the lives of thousands, perhaps millions, by acts of negligence against the future.   They serve not as guardians to the future, but as bandits who would steal from the present to secure their own positions of power in the future.   Both leaders seek weaponry not to protect their citizens, but to protect their castles of leadership.  Both are dictators who believe the dog run was designed for the Beast of Terror, not for learning how to civilize relations between all the breeds.
         The matrix of a New York City dog run proves that species from all different varieties can coexist if they are managed properly.   You can go to a dog run and see Pit Bulls playing with Tibetan Terriers, and Afghans playing with American Bull Dogs, and Bichon Frise romping happily with Mexican Chihuahuas, and Chinese Chongqing's happily chasing Guatemalan Bull Terriers, and Rumanian Sheepdogs leaping with Scottish Deerhounds.

         Civilized integration exists in a dog run by necessity.
         Wild creatures can learn to "get along," as long as their caretakers demand of them certain considerations of coexistence with other breeds, and when such caretakers are alert to halting any potential conflict before it flares. 

         If the feral nature of dogs can be tamed, it would seem the same wildness in human nature can be brought under leash.
         My friend Jimmy has found ways to manage his Beast of Terror.   The monks high atop the Himalayan mountains also have.   They found such management in the heart of a dog.
        As we look at Terrorism we must not stop looking only at the Beast of Terror it represents.  We must look deeper.
       Beyond the Beast of Terror is the Sentinel of Vigilance.  It is often buried so that we can only see the fangs and claws and jaws of the Beast, and not the glowing brightness of Vigilance which often grows below the surface.
      Jimmy took the time to see through the woman's stupidity and selfishness and realized that she had not bothered to brush the scales of the Beast of Terror from her eyes, her mind or her actions.   She ignored his pleas to restrain the Beast of Terror threatening his dog.  Her neglect was a symbol of her Complacency.  He also knew if he could change, so could she.   He had restrained the Beast.

       He had the Courage, Conviction and took the Right Actions to warn the woman of her "stupid selfishness," and to let her know her dog was a danger to the "children of the dog run."  He hoped his message sunk into her thick skull.  He knew it had his.
      Today, the United States is hovering over the dog run in Iraq, telling Saddam Hussein to "leash his dogs of war."   The U.S. has sent bombers to Guam, to alert North Korea's Kim Jong Il that even thought the U.S. might be engaging in war with Iraq, it will still guard its flanks against the Terrorism of nuclear proliferation in the Far East.  It won't turn its back on the dog runs there.
      In a sense, the U.S. is the "park ranger" that Jimmy was going to call--the policeman of serenity for the dog parks of life.
      Many currently question the right of the U.S. to position itself as the "guardian" of peace.   These critics of U.S. Vigilance Policy think we should wait until the greyhound rips the throat out of the Tibetan Terrier before we react.  They call for a "smoking gun," suggesting that America should wait for the first bullet to be fired or the first nuclear bomb to go off, or the first biochemical weapon to foul the air before we commit to being "in charge" of the world's Terror Dog Runs.

      They ask us to forget we are guardians of Freedom, Parents of Vigilance from all the dog runs of life, combined and combed into one strand of people representing all cultures, politics, religions, races, creeds who seek peace and prosperity for all,  just as Tibetan monks seek it.  Only we are willing to fight for it, to spill our blood to insure its preservation.

       The dog runs of life need to be policed from Terrorism.  They need to have Tibetan Terriers as well as Pit Bulls learning to mix with one another.  And, when one  threatens the security of the dog run, someone needs to stand up and stop the danger from growing into disaster.

      Someone needs to tell the other they are "stupid" for allowing a dog to attack another dog.  Someone needs to call the park ranger if the "weapons of mass destruction," the fangs of the feral dog, aren't  muzzled
      So, hail the Tibetan Terrier.
      Let us all be its guardian, for it is the Dog of Vigilance.
      And let it bring us Good Luck and Prosperity on the journey to Vigilance.

Feb 4.--Is The Beast Of Terror Worth $200 Million?