GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Sep 12, 2003-- The Terrorist slipped quietly into the crowd at the NK department store in Stockholm.    In his pocket was a razor-sharp knife.   A few feet away was his unsuspecting victim, shopping with other Swedish people, Anna Lindh, a 46-year-old mother of two sons, was unaware the Terrorist's blade would carve into her vital organs in just a few moments, slicing and carving the life out of her.

       The attack would be more than just a random act of violence by a deranged madman.   It would be a political assassination, a minor version of the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.   Anna Lindh was Sweden's foreign minister, an outspoken advocate of many issues, including extolling the virtues of joining the European union.
        In a brazen attack not unlike the Terrorists who flew fuel-laden planes into U.S. icons of power, the lone Terrorist repeatedly stabbed Anna Lindh in the department store, then rushed out, dropping the knife.   He still remains at large.    Reports say he looked like a citizen of the country.    Speculation is he was a political Terrorist, violently opposed to joining the European union.   This week the citizens vote on the issue.
        At 5:29 a.m., on September 11, 2003, just a few short hours before the anniversary of the first Terrorist plane attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Anna Lindh died of internal bleeding from wounds to her stomach and liver at  Stockholm's Karolinska Hospital. 
        The shock of her death still rings throughout Sweden.
        Prior to the attack, Swedish politicians have prided themselves that they don't need personal security.    Their progressive country, home of the Nobel Prize, has stood as a symbol of safety and security, especially expressed by its ability for top politicians such as the foreign minister to mix with the people doing the mundane tasks of life like shopping at a department store.
        Personal security protection is only afforded King Carl Gustav and Prime Minister Goran Persson.    Anna Lindh was on track to replace Persson as Prime Minister.   Those plans were cut short by the assassin.

        Foreign Minister Lindh was quick to express her views.  She called President Bush a "Lone Ranger" for going it alone in Iraq without U.N. support, but was in favor of the battle against global Terrorism.
         She called for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, chided the Italian foreign minister for comparing a German lawmaker to a Nazi concentration camp kapo, and spoke against the U.S. refusing to take part in the International Criminal Court.
                This wasn't the first recent political assassination in Sweden.  In February, 1986, Prime Minister Olof Palme was walking home with his wife after seeing a movie.  A gunman shot him to death and escaped.
           In parallel, the two assassins are similar to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.    Both heads of Terror remain at large.   Osama is considered the chief architect of Nine Eleven, and Saddam, although not directly linked to the attacks, is considered to be involved by many Americans and the Administration.   

           In Sweden, as in the United States, September 11 represents a sad tribute to the loss of a nation's innocence.
           America was considered a "safe haven" in relation to other parts of the world where continuous threats to the safety of people loomed large.    Sweden held a similar image to a world ducking and weaving bullets and bombs hurled here and there by a wide range of political and Terror forces.
            Both myths have been smashed.
            America, land of the free and brave, now enlists special anti-Terrorism forces such as New York's Hercules team--an elite, heavily armed anti-Terrorism strike force of the NYPD.
            Prior to Nine Eleven, the NYPD allocated only about a dozen of its 39,000 officers to work full time on Terrorism.   Since the attacks, that number has grown to more than 900.

            In addition to Hercules heavily armed teams with automatic weapons, another elite group called the Archangels was created to stave off millennium Terror threats.   Combining fire department and police experts, another group called Hammer Teams is available to deal with hazardous materials such as bombs and chemicals.
             Sweden faces similar changes in its social security structure.
             Now that the Beast of Terror has waltzed into the limelight, the nation of Sweden faces a major shift in its attitude toward security.   The birthplace of the Nobel Peace Prize may be forced to become the home of the Sentinels of Vigilance, the promoters of the Pledge of Vigilance.
             Even though I understand the goal of Peace as a philosophy, I shy from it.  I have a great personal fear that people who assume Peace as a goal also assume that when it is achieved they can drop their guard, relax, sigh relief, break down the walls that keep the Beast of Terror at bay and release their children to play under the false clouds of safety.
             Peace means to me the absence of War, and some eradication or nullification of the threats of War.
             It implies to me a nirvana, a lofty surrealistic state where the molecules of human frailty have been extracted from human chemistry and the fundamental defects of human nature--pride, anger, greed, lust, envy, gluttony and sloth--have evaporated.
             I am a fundamentalist regarding human nature.  I believe that elements of nature, the positive charge versus the negative charge that creates tension and produces gravity and holds all matter together, cannot be altered.    That is, the negative forces, commonly called "evil intent" or, in legal terms, "mens rea," will never be excluded from humans.

              Peace, as a word, suggest the absence of all negative forces.   It is illusionary at best.  At its worst, it drives us down false paths, toward unattainable goals, and, as in the case of Anna Lindh, shocks us into dismay when the Beast of Terror--human negativity personified in violence against others--rises out of our primordial ooze and lashes out to maim, kill, torture and violate our sense of respect for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
               Sweden is caught in the turmoil of Terrorism's reality.   It must look into the mirror and wonder how it will deal with arming itself to defend against the potential crimes of human nature.
             One solution I see is to create another prize--the Nobel Vigilance Prize.   
             Humankind can bash its head against the brick wall for eternity trying to reach a state of Peace and fail in every attempt, ultimately discouraging all Peace Advocates from ever realistically believing the ultimate is possible.
             Conversely, humanity can strive not for the unattainable, but for that which is within its grasp--Vigilance!
              Vigilance is not about expunging evil, or eviscerating the flaws in human nature, but instead protecting its children from the dangers of letting down their guard against the defects that can turn a human being into a Beast of Terror.
              Physics reminds us we cannot remove something without first replacing it with something else.    Peace only exists in the absence of War, and cannot exist without the threat of War.   They are poles of one another, mated, the mother and father of each other, inviolable in their nature.  They cannot be cleaved, for to remove one is to destroy the other's existence.
              Mechanically, they are a seesaw.   When one goes up, the other goes down.  But what goes up must come down, so while Peace may exist for a blink or two, it cannot defy gravity.  It will be replaced with War, and the seesaw continues ad infinitum.

            But the balance between the two extremes is possible.   The seesaw can be leveled so that One Percent more weight is on the "teeter" not the "totter" side of the equation.
             That equation can be reduced to one word: "Vigilance!"
             Vigilance is a simple equation of thought.   It requires us to manage One Percent more Courage than Fear, One Percent more Conviction than Intimidation, and One Percent more Right Actions in behalf of the Children's Children's Children than Complacency in the present.
             Sweden fell victim to the Triad of Terrorism.   It felt secure on the seesaw between Peace and War.  But the most powerful element of the Triad of Terrorism, Complacency, tipped the balance.   It drove a madman's blade into the vital organs of an outstanding woman, mother, and political symbol.   It ripped and eviscerated the Womb of Vigilance in a crowded department store, and caused the death of a Sentinel of Vigilance on September 11, 2003.
             This lesson should not go unnoticed or unanswered by those who stand for a world charged with making our universe safe for future generations.
            Sweden's legacy is not about Peace but truly about Vigilance.
            In the early days of the 21st Century, Sweden has the opportunity to review its Nobel Peace Prize nomenclature and consider either adding another award, or altering the name of the current one.
            The Nobel Vigilance Prize tells the world not that we are now moving toward a state of stasis, a state of purity, a state of Complacency, but rather toward a state of reckoning, a state of guardedness, a state of preparation against forces that eternally have and eternally will, threaten the security of future generations.
           The "prize" Sweden offers should be that we, all of us, from each and every land--all 6.1 billion of us currently, and the billions more who will follow--become Citizens, Parents, Grandparents and Loved Ones of Vigilance, subscribing to the Principles of Vigilance that demand we recognize the Beast of Terror and learn to neutralize, to balance the Beast's efforts to twist and maim our thoughts so we act against the laws of human decency and perform acts of Terrorism whether they be physical or emotional.

         The Terrorists who attacked the U.S. and the Terrorist who drove the sharp blade of a knife into Anna Lindh's flesh are symbols of the Triad of Terrorism.
          They suckled on the Beast of Terror's teats, drinking the foul milk of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency while ignoring Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for the Children's Children's Children.
          Had these Terrorists subscribed to the Principles of Vigilance they would have stopped before acting out their missions of violence against other human beings.   They would have been forced to question the intent of their actions in reference to the impact it would have upon all the children of the world, not just their own, but upon the children of Anna Lindh and the thousands of children surviving the victims of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and those of Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
         The great minds of the world, the scientists, authors, educators, politicians, world leaders, who seek Peace for a troubled world will achieve that goal only when they deal with the true reality of gravity, only when they recognize that Peace is a fragile balance between Terrorism and Vigilance, a balance that requires us to source out the roots of Terrorism.
          Those roots begin with how a child views life.    And if a child is taught the Principles of Vigilance, and charged with the duty to battle his or her Beast of Terror with Courage, Conviction and Right Actions for future generations, we cut deep into the quick of Terrorism's tap roots.
          But, this will only happen when someone stands up to Terrorism not in the physical battlefields where bombs and bullets represent the crescendo of Terrorism's wrath, and where the Beast of Terror roams about lapping up the blood of his or her victims, but in the emotional arena--in the homes of Parents of Vigilance who teach their children how to fight Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.
          Acts of Terror are the end result of human Complacency.   They represent the neglect we as human beings have fostered by not hitting the nail on the head.   The head of the nail begins with a vow by a parent to teach a child to battle the Beast of Terror with the Sword and Shield of Vigilance.
          But parents of children will never subscribe to such a role until someone, or some respected entity, charges them with that responsibility.
          Sweden is poised to do just that.
          Currently, it holds in its hands a symbol that the world stares at with hope.  That symbol is the Nobel Peace Prize.   But, that prize is not designed for the average person.  It is limited to the most lofty of all.

        The real candidates for the Nobel Vigilance Prize should be the average citizens of the world---those who illustrate and define through the upbringing of their children all the qualities of  Parents of Vigilance that will help insure our world can evolve above its Beast's Nature.
          Awards for Citizens of Vigilance, Grandparents of Vigilance, Loved Ones of Vigilance can be included to support and reinforce the depth that Vigilance must seek within the fabric of society to be most effective.
           Anna Lindh's assassin did not have Parents of Vigilance.   Had he been a Child of Vigilance, he would have learned to balance his TerrorThoughts.   He would have stopped before he thrust the knife into the body of a Mother of Vigilance and realized that he was acting at the detriment of future generations.
            I ask all the citizens of Sweden to take the death of Anna Lindh as an opportunity to reconsider the issuing of the Nobel Peace Prize and to ask whether the nation should continue it solely, or add another, the Nobel Vigilance Prize, to be issued to those person or persons who serve as the best example of Vigilance in a variety of categories.
          If we are going to install bodyguards, shouldn't we install them in the minds of our children before they grow into Terrorists?   Isn't the best bodyguard against Terrorism the Principles of Vigilance?
         All the guns and all the guards in the world cannot stop a madman or madwoman from an act of Terror.

        What can stop them is a Parent, Grandparent, Loved One or Citizen of Vigilance who imparts to the child the Principles of Vigilance, who teaches a child to defend himself or herself from the Triad of Terrorism.
         When children are trained to fight Fear with Courage, Intimidation with Conviction and Complacency with Right Actions for the Children's Children's Children, our world will not be bouncing up and down on the seesaw of War and Peace.  We will, instead, be walking on much safer paths, keeping our eyes, ears and actions such that the Beast of Terror will have nothing to feed upon.
          Support the Nobel Vigilance Prize.
          It will be Sweden's and the world's greatest gift.

Sep 11--The Vow Of Vigilance On Ground Zero Plus 729 Day

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