GROUND ZER0, NEW YORK, NY--There's a new Beast of Terror taking root in town, offering a far greater threat with its weapons of mass destruction than Saddam Hussein or Kim Jong Il could imagine.  It's called The Beast of SARS or "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome," (SARS).
       The disease is stealing headlines from Osama, Saddam and Kim Jon Il.   And, it may ultimately be far more devastating than any Terror attack one could imagine.

    Priority for bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at major airports have given way to hunting for the SARS Terrorist.  New thermal image monitoring devices are being installed in Canada's Toronto and Vancouver airports to detect a person with a fever--an early sign of SARS infection.   In Israel, visitors from SARS-attacked countries such as Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, are detained and their temperatures taken before allowing them entrance.
      Taiwan Premier Yu Shyi-kun quarantines for 10 days all Taiwanese citizens returning from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.  He's banned all visitors from those countries, which are considered to be hot spots for the virus that has no cure as yet.  
      "Fighting the epidemic is like fighting a war," he said.  "We are facing an invisible enemy."
      China, the apparent source of the viral disease, reports 2,914 infected by SARS.  The World Health Organization says the figure worldwide is 5,200.   Approximately six percent of all those infected die.  So far the economic impact of the disease on economies that rely on travel to boost revenues is estimated to be $30 billion and rising.
      More than 300 deaths have been reported so far, with more expected as the infection spreads.

       SARS usually starts out with a low-grade fever around 100.4F and sometimes includes chills, headaches, a general feeling of discomfort and body aches--similar to the flu.  An infectious disease, it can be passed on by sneezing and person-to-person contact. It may also spread through contact with infected feces.   Prevention includes avoiding crowded areas and frequent hand washing.
(Sophia Story On Washing Hands).

       SARS, on the heels of the Iraq War, signals a message of great Vigilance to every nation on earth.  The message keys the need for world unity against a common enemy, one who threatens the security of the Children and their Children's Children's Children.  It is summed up by General Gro Harlem Brundtland, World Health Organization Director.   "We have a chance to do it now (solve the SARS epidemic) if we work together globally, across the countries."
      General Brundtland's cry for universal aid to fight the disease of SARS is the same call to action the world needs to hear in regards to Terrorism.   Both are infectious diseases.  Both threaten the future of the world in their own peculiar wars.
     Like SARS, Terrorism is an "invisible enemy."  It slips into our thoughts, creating pus pockets of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.   It weakens our Vigilance Immune System when we don't counter its intrusion.   If we don't take our Vigilance Medicine, that is, retake the Vow of Vigilance, we forget to remember how to defend against it and it corrupts our actions, pitting us against one another, turning us back into the Beasts of Past, when we sought to club one another with disregard to achieve selfish rather than selfish goals.

     Afflicted by the Fever of Terrorism, we begin to believe, for example, we are powerless over the ills and problems of the world, that we are trapped in mundane ruts or, we are nails and everyone else is the hammer.  Our dreams grind into nightmares and our desires to evolve are smashed into dust until we accept things "as they are, for what they are," and snarl and growl at what "things could be" for the world, it seems, trounces upon us and tears our hopes into shreds.

      Like SARS, the Disease of Terrorism weakens our will, and drives us into states of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency until we feel we are grains of sand of a huge beach, faceless creatures flowing on the whims of life's tides, ebbing and flooding with no sense of control to our own destiny.  We become what many call, "the masses," and sheep our way through life, waiting for the shepherd to manage us.
      Under the Beast of Terror's attack, we think little of conjuring our Courage, or bolstering our Convictions, or making every thought and action to the benefit of the Children's Children's Children.   Terrorism's disease does its best to cut our legs from beneath us, to crippled or limit our will and desire to rise above the common, to excel in spite of our limitations.
       It infects our global thinking.
       France, it was recently revealed, was sending Saddam briefing documents on the U.S. impending attack days prior to the U.S. invasion.   France, it should be remembered, voted in favor of the U.N. Resolution 1441 authorizing force against Iraq should it not comply with weapons inspectors, and then led the charge against the U.S. to force Saddam to emasculate his weapons of mass destruction.
      This is the SARS of Terrorism.
      It exists in North Korea today, with the threat of nuclear weapon production.
      SARS is Terrorism in another form.   We call upon nations to cooperate with the World Health Organization, to pool resources to fight it, to find a cure for its assault on our young, our old, and everyone in between.

      But what do we do about Terrorism?
      We treat it also as an epidemic.
      We say we must cut it out, isolate it, eliminate it or it will spread.  But, we forget it is invisible and a virus.  We forget it bounces around inside us all like a cancer cell, waiting to be released.
       The antidote for Terrorism is Vigilance, but we don't shout that out to the world.  We wait until the Terrorist starts killing people, or threatens to kill them, before we act.  We wait for Kim Jong Il to tell us he's going to manufacture weapons of mass destruction before we stand up and say, "No, you're not."
       We wait for the epidemic to boil over before we rush to turn the burner down.
       Vigilance, on the other hand, is all about neutralizing, or giving an antidote to Terrorism, daily so that it cannot grow.
       Fear, Intimidation and Complacency--the Viruses of Terrorism--can only be assaulted successfully by the Sentinels of Vigilance--Courage, Conviction and Right Action in behalf of the Children's Children's Children.

       Only when nations, states, countries, and people across all borders treat Terrorism as a disease of the mind, as they do SARS a disease of the body, will we eventually curb and control the Terrorism epidemic.
      When a Parent or Citizen of Vigilance vows to fight his or her internal Beast of Terror Daily, by recognizing the presence of the Beast of Terror in his or her thoughts, and offers a willingness to combat it, to overcome its thirst to weaken the human spirit, to abuse others, or to allow itself to be abused by others, will Terrorism be contained.
       You can start your process of inoculation against the SARS of Terrorism today.  

       Take the Pledge of Vigilance.

       Live by the Principles of Vigilance.
       Pass the Principles of Vigilance on to your children and loved ones to insure the future's safety from the Beast of Terror.
       Let SARS remind you that there is a disease, a pestilence far more dangerous to the soul of humanity than any disease is to its body--and that is the disease of Complacency.
       Stand up for Vigilance.
       Take the Vow of Vigilance today.
     

April 27--Charlton Heston Fighting For Vigilance

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