GROUND ZER0, NEW YORK, NY--The binary system is composed of "0's" and "1's," a simple code of black and white, right and wrong, good and bad.  It deals with the extremes and not the middle.   You are either a round peg or a square hole.  There is not gray area.
        This brings to question the actions of 32 high school seniors, 28 girls and four boys, suspended this week from Glenbrook North High School in Glenview, Ill for participating in a brutal hazing of junior class girls that resulted in five girls injured seriously enough to require medical attention.   The hazing, conducted off campus, included hitting the girls, rubbing feces and paint on them, and forcing those who tried to leave to remain.

         Criminal assault charges are being considered by the Cook County District Attorney's office in addition to the 10-day suspension levied by the school.   Cases of beer were present at the hazing, and there is a rumor that it was supplied by a few of the parents, but that has not yet been confirmed.

        The event started out as a "powder puff" football game, girls against girls, and escalated into a war in which the Beast of Terror rose to the surface, and any sense of civilized behavior was cast aside.   Unfortunately for the senior girls, the event was videotaped and is now part of the evidence against them.
      Two girls have appealed the suspension.  Since the students acted off campus, a hearing is scheduled for today to rule on the legality of the suspension.

      From a binary point of view, there is no gray area.  The girls who assaulted the unsuspecting juniors were Terrorists.   If Terrorism is defined as inflicting Fear, Intimidation and Complacency into its victims, the videotape, played heavily on major network television, reveals the brutality and disrespect for human dignity not unlike Al-Jazeera's videos did the American P.O.W's back in March after their capture.
       The attack on the junior girls, while not deadly, can also be butted against the recent bombing of an American compound in Saudi Arabia.   While the attack killed seven Americans, it also sent shock waves through those who were attempting to feel secure.    They know a suicide bomber lurks just around the corner--the question is where and when?

       Underestimating the attacks upon the junior high school girls by the seniors as a "gag" that went out of control is a mollification of the Beast of Terror's grip on all humans.     Given a certain set of conditions and circumstances, the high school attack symbolizes the thin line in the binary function of "0" vs. "1."   It reminds us that the Beast of Terror can rise up like a pilot whale exploding from the depths of the ocean, tons of its blubber suspended effortlessly as though gravity did not exist, and take all by surprise.
         Terrorism is all about surprise.

            Often, the most surprised are the people who issue it.    I'm sure there are many senior girls who went to the "powder puff" game with no intent to rub feces or paint on underlings, or to hit or kick them, or to humiliate them to such a point that their dignity as people dissolved in the melee of madness.
         Such mendacity is not usually planned.   Often, it is triggered, as many Germans claim during World War II when the population was swept up in Hitler's frenetic Nazism.  Recently, we saw this polarity when hawks berated doves regarding Complacency over the war in Iraq.  The binary thought was met with doves castigating hawks as ruthless, blood-hungry capitalistic killers.  There was no middle ground.  Black was white, white was black.  No gray.

        In Iraq, the recent change of command of U.S. overseers has resulted in a "shoot to kill" policy against looters.   Looting now means death, or the danger of it.   The new overseer has removed the gray area of negotiating peace in the aftermath of war.
        Which brings us back to the 28 young girls who switched from civilized inductors to Terrorist torturers.
         Everyone is trying to figure out why?   What formula drove the girls to demean their associates with brutal, horrible actions that sent five to the hospital and now has shined the spotlight on them as "criminals?"
         Binary Terrorism is my answer.
         And the solution is Binary Vigilance.
         In the final reduction of all matter to its basic elements, we are left with only two forces that hold the world together, that create existence as we know it.  These are the Plus and the Minus, the Positive and the Negative charges that spin about in orbits around every molecule, serving as the glue that binds all things

         Technologically, it is represented by "O" vs "1,"--and a wide variety of combinations of these "0's" and "1's" result in the arrangement of the universe.   It also applies to our thinking.   Either we are for or against something.    There is no such thing as no opinion, just as there is no such thing as "coasting."   When one claims neutrality on an issue, he or she is simply refusing to accept the forces of nature.     Neutrality means "coasting," and the only way one can coast is downhill.  In other words, "neutrality" is nothing more than another form of Complacency, and Complacency is Terrorism's greatest weapon for it allows one to "think" he or she can put down the guards and not participate.
           Those who stood by and watched Hitler rise to power were not neutral.   The employee who watches executives rip off stockholders and says "that's not my business" is not in any safe zone.   One can be guilty by association, if one is aware of a choice and refuses to act to protect those who might be harmed.
             Each of the girls who participated in the hazing events had a choice of walking away, or, of stopping the actions.   Even if they stood by and didn't pick up any feces or hit any other the tortured victims, the inaction was an action.  It was an action of Complacency, a movement toward the Minus and away from the Plus, a choice to take the "!" over the "O."
             When our headlines scream out for justice over behavior such as that exhibited by the high school girls in Illinois, we need to take our masks off and look at what was happening.    The Beast of Terror ruled that moment.
            The girls became the Beast of Terror.

          They were Terrorists of an equal nature to those who bombed the World Trade Center, to those who strap on suicide bombs and board buses, to those who attempt to use the power of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency to inflict pain--emotional and physical--upon their victims.  They lose their humanity.
             Many will say that such a label as Terrorist attached to the girl's behavior is too harsh.   But is it?   The victims of the assault may argue that they feared for their lives.   Eating or having fecal material shoved in your mouth could impose a life-threatening situation if the bacteria were to surge through the body of one with  low immunosuppression.
             A girl allergic to paint might have convulsed and died.
             Then, there is the emotional horror.    Friends, or seeming-to-be friends, turned into animals, hitting, berating, attacking all to the lens of a video camera.
             The case of the high school students reminds us all that we must be Vigilant at all times.   If we relax our Vigilance, the Beast of Terror can rise to the surface, explode into a melee of anger and violence.
             Couples, who seem to be perfect, can suddenly turn on one another and say things they regret, hurtful cruel words that act as spears in the other's heart.

           Parents can brush away a child's need for a hug or love because he or she is too busy, not giving consideration that such an act to a child might be taken the same as rubbing feces on his or her face, or kicking the child.
            Vigilance is more than a responsibility in today's world, it is a duty.  It is the duty of the Parents of Vigilance to become trained experts on quelling the Beast of Terror.   When a Parent of Vigilance accepts the fact the Beast of Terror is within us all, sometimes more dormant than others, he or she will expect the unexpected.
            A Vigilant Parent will train a child to manage his or her Beast of Terror by pulling up Courage to fight Fear, Conviction to quash Intimidation, and Right Actions for the future of the Children's Children's Children to keep Complacency in check.
            It appears none of these Shields of Vigilance were present at the hazing event.
            Had the girls been Children of Vigilance, they would have recognized the Beast of Terror's hunger to inflict Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.  They would have asked:  "Is physically abusing these girls with paint, feces and hitting them a benefit to future generations, or does it retard the evolution of human dignity?"
           Often, we complicate morality and ethics in so many degrees of "rights" and "wrongs" that it makes us think we have a multiple amount of choices in our actions.    It makes us think, "What can we get away with?  How far can we go without crossing the line?"
           Binary Thinking draws the line.

           An act is either one of Vigilance or Terrorism.
           If the act benefits the future, and is taken with Courage and Conviction, then it is a Vigilant Act.
           But, if the act serves selfish needs, sating the desire of only the person and has no consideration to its import on others, it is an Act of Terrorism.   And, if it produces Fear, Intimidation and Complacency, it is without doubt gravitas in nature, pulling human dignity and self respect down into the Beast of Terror's lair.
           Were I to eke out the punishment for the 28 girls and four boys, I would insist they undergo Sentinel of Vigilance Training.    I would require them to learn Binary Thinking, and to see the world in two spotlights--that of Acts of Vigilance and that of Acts of Terrorism.
            While no one can guarantee the results of anyone's actions, I would be inclined to propose that a number of the 32 would learn from their mistakes.
            Each of them has no doubt of their Beast of Terror.  It is trapped on videotape.

    Now, perhaps the Fear, Intimidation and Complacency of being a Beast of Terror might motivate them to become its opposite--a Sentinel of Vigilance.
            My judgment:  the high school students, their parents, and all school administrators take the Sentinel of Vigilance Training, sign the Pledge of Vigilance, and vow to be ever watchful for the Beast's rise from within.
            And you?   You can pass your own judgment.   Take the Pledge of Vigilance today, because the Beast of Terror already has your signature on his Pledge of Terror.

May 13--Who's In Charge Of Chaos?

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