Practice real anti-terrorism -- use your mind, use your heart, use the legacies of our democratic republic!!

Written Jan. 27, 2006, after news reports of a message apparently from Osama Bin Laden.

Now we face the possibility that a crime like this, perhaps one even worse, may be committed again.

Can we afford to simply continue the way that we have? For most of us, that means simply waiting, as we have been since September, 2001. We have been told that there is nothing useful we can do. Our security, we are told, is in the hands of shadowy government agencies, agencies that have a history of failure, and that do a lot of harm. In addition, we have been told that the war in Iraq is somehow going to protect us -- but most of us now understand that that is simply false.

What if we initiated a real process of anti-terrorism, from the grassroots up? What would that look like?

Freedom of speech is "Job One" for all of us. It is not just a right, but a duty. Without all of our voices being heard, we cannot solve our national problems. Whether you speak up for these particular ideas that I suggest or others, each of us must speak up.

We also must not fixate on the particular corrupt leadership now in power in this country. Getting rid of them is an obvious necessity, but it will not solve our major problems. Those problems will only be solved when millions of U.S. people learn -- by doing - that democracy is not a slogan, but a process -- and that it is the only process that we know that leads to good and fair outcomes. The antidote to attacks on our nation is not less democracy in our nation, or more democracy in some other country. It is more democracy right here -- and it starts with you.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. Any one of these could be the basis for a letter to the editor, or to your Member of Congress, or for local action by your neighborhood or your congregation or for a resolution by your local government.

1) Demand action against the criminals of 9/11/2001. That was a day of mass murder, not of war. None of the people killed so horribly were combatants. Our leaders have dignified brutal murder by giving it the nobility of "war." Every day, as this "war" goes on, the 3,000 victims of murder and those they left behind are being forgotten, little by little. Yes, the people who talk the most about 9/11 are in fact distracting us from its ugly reality. Our naitonal leaders encourage us to think of murderers as if they were another country with which we are at war, and with which we could someday be at peace.

I respect the rights and aspirations of the people of majority Islamic nations, and I agree with many criticisms of our nation. But I will never for a moment condone mass murder of civilians -- by anyone. Murderers must be brought to justice.

We need an international trial of the accomplices to those murders. We should remind the world every day of those who died, and that so many of them were immigrants, people of color, women, Muslims and people of all faiths -- that the whole world has a stake in justice being done.

And we should remind our President -- our temporary employee in the White House --- that every day that the 9/11 architects are not brought to a public court of justice is a day wasted. What actually happened on 9/11/2001 must not be blurred away into some other agenda. In particular, we simply have no time or resources for a war in Iraq (or Iran) while the planners of 9/11 have not been held accountable before the whole world.

2) Help harden the targets in your community. If you have a facility in your community that is a natural terrorist target -- a nuclear reactor, a chemical plant, a sewage treatment plant that uses chlorine gas -- get to work today to make sure that it has high levels of security on site, that dangerous materials are stored safely, and that there are plans for evacuation. Make sure that any potential terrorists know that real actions have been taken to foil them in your community. Make sure that your local first responders are 100% satisfied that everything necessary has been done. Just as on 9/11/2001, it is their lives that will be at risk if there is another murderous attack.

We are being asked by the current federal administration to give up some of our Constitutional rights to help fight terrorism. Well, if the situation is that bad, then chemical manufacturers and electric utilities can give up some of their profits.

If you don't have the right to talk on the phone without being listened to, then these plants certainly have no right to operate while being wide open to terrorists. Let them know that you will shut them down unless they have taken serious action to prevent their use in a terrorist attack. (And as far as jobs are concerned, they should all hire more people, especially safety personnel.)

3) Consciously cut your use of petroleum products. Think about everything you do that uses petroleum products -- not just gas and oil, but plastics. Drive a car that uses less gas or uses biodiesel -- or use mass transit or bike or walk. Avoid getting that vinyl siding, get products packaged in glass or paper or not at all. Buy your food as locally as you can. Heat with firewood and with solar energy. Solar water heat is an easy place to start. Demand that your state and local government help everyone to do the same.

The bigger the world petroleum market, the more those in power in the US will feel justified in holding power in the Mideast. The smaller the world petroleum market, the more we can make our foreign policy decisions based on what's right, not on our fear of running out of oil. In addition, we will make our society cleaner, safer, and more conscious of all of our environmental impacts.

4) Call on our most experienced anti-terrorist leadership -- the African-American community.

Until the late 1960s, millions of American citizens lived under the daily threat of terrorism -- from bombing, mutilation, kidnapping, rape and brutal secret murders. They were, of course, African-Americans in the South.

While terrorism against people of color, assertive women, immigrants and sexual minorities continues, the KKK state that ruled in the former Confederacy has been forced to relinquish the systematic use of terror. (Those were the good old days Trent Lott was regretting when he praised Strom Thurmond -- days of lynching and terror.) We should turn to the heirs of the civil rights movement leadership to lead the US anti-terrorist strategy. That movement is the only group of U.S. citizens that has defeated terrorism.

It is not a coincidence that African-American politicians, and the majority of all African-Americans, have opposed the Iraq war and the attacks on our civil liberties from the White House. They understand that the moral high ground is not merely a nice place to be, it's the only place from which winning can begin. And they know that our Constitution, imperfect as it is, is a framework for all our hopes for the future, not an obstacle to victory. If all the U.S. tries to be is the most successful savage in a savage world, our defeat is just a matter of time, and victory wouldn't be worth having anyway.

5) Be a militant republican. Republicanism is the idea that the people can run their own government, uncontrolled by a hereditary class or royalty. Let's finish what we started in 1776, by ending monarchy in the last place in the world where it has substantial power -- in Arabia. Not one US weapon or dollar of military aid, and certainly not one US life, should go to defending the Saudi monarchy and the other monarchies of the Arabian area. We should tell the Saudi royal family and the other royal families of the Gulf that if they leave their countries now, allowing internationally supervised elections, we will protect them as individuals, and allow them some of their wealth. If not, too bad for them; we are not in the business of keeping kings in power.

6) Push for a foreign policy based on our real national security, one that is not offensive to the rest of the world. We cannot protect ourselves without allies of all kinds. There are many people in the world who resent the US, but there are only a few that want to kill randomly selected people in the US. We need all the friends we can get without selling out our principles.

For example, most countries in the world want us to work with them to reduce the risks from climate change. Even if you don't believe climate change is real, what do we lose by working with them? What we stand to gain is someone to watch our back in a dangerous world. Only a fool goes into a dark alley in a strange neighborhood alone.

The "geniuses" in the various national security agencies have given us Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and have thrown their support behind other vicious men like Papa Doc Duvalier, Pinochet, and Mobutu. None of these bought and paid for "friends" did us any real good. There is a world full of people who want to like the U.S., but we are forcing them to become our enemies.

7) If you pray, don't pray for victory over anyone. There is no safety in victory, because victory is always temporary. Besides, those who think that they personally know the Will of the Divine are far more offensive to real faith than those who simply and honestly do not believe the Divine exists. None of us can prove that G*d does or does not exist. But all of us know that if there is a G*d of the Universe, G*d is not so small as to be the property of one nation or one culture. Free yourself from the idea that you know exactly what outcome G*d wants. Be humble and accept the whole world of creation, in which you are not dominant and cannot be.

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Again, these are just examples, to get your creative juices flowing. Think boldly! Think in the tradition of 1776! All of us who live in this nation, whatever our heritage and whatever our status, are sharing in an experiment that has had beautiful and ugly moments. 9/11/2001 was a terrible moment. But we did not have to let it be used to make our nation worse. We can choose to accept that, or we can change it. Every single one of us has some part in that choice. No single election or other event will turn around the erosion of democracy and common sense.