posted 11-01-2001 10:56 AM            

By Eric Francis

William Safire, The New York Times "On Language" columnist, did a piece a few weeks back in which he examined the words and expressions that have become the jargon of the post-11th world. I can't find it in my mountain of mostly-unread newspapers, but his closing comment was that "coward" was a bad word for someone who would fly an airplane into a skyscraper (as Mr. Bush flippantly described those people) but that "terrorist" was a really good one.

We don't know for sure who the terrorists were, but we do know that there is an organization within the United States spreading terror faster than ever before: the media.

It's long been the media's job to horrify us, to spin our emotions into a frenzy and then tell us what to do. We know and expect this; we know and accept that there is no such thing as good news. It's just that right now there's a lot of extra horrible news, it's getting worse, and few people are questioning any of it. Newspapers and television stations are in all their glory in times of disaster, and the historical precedents for them pushing the nation into war, for being used to push the nation into war, and prolonging horrific wars, are too numerous to count.

The media does not spread anthrax directly, but it spreads the thought, the fear and the idea of anthrax faster than any dust spores could travel on a brisk wind.

Terrorism means the commission of acts which perpetrate fear. The attack is an attack of fear and designed to incite fear. Many people were hurt and killed on Sept. 11th but many, infinitely more were just plain scared. What is the difference between someone who flies an airplane into a skyscraper and someone who scares the wits out of millions of people with a television program? I would say nothing at all. While the plane crash kills lots of people, so does fear. Fear on this order scars people for life, it freaks out little kids, it freaks out animals, and it takes us out of our lives.

What we are seeing unfold in our society right now is just a kind of blossoming of seeds long ago planted: the seeds of ignorance, hatred, and guilt. All of these are used to create attack and fear.

Attack and fear are sold to us as the way to peace. America is always at war. Whether it's a Vietnam or an El Salvador or a War on Poverty or a War on Drugs or a Cold War or a War on Illiteracy, unless we're at war, we're think we lack commitment, or we don't get excited, or we can't get it up. But any fool or enlightened master can tell you that the way to peace is not war. They have been foisting that one on us forbloodyever: the war to end all wars.

We believe it. Why?

Fear. If not for fear, we could not possibly believe the shit that's being force-fed to us, and none of this would make any sense at all; fear twists the mind into believing lies, into wanting lies to be true, into wanting to be lied to. And we live with a whole bunch of fear, and we always have, because each and every person on the planet right now has come into maturity or grown up from day one under the shadow of nuclear annihilation and all the bullshit that's come along with it, all the excuses, the execution of supposed Commies, the hell-to-pay, and the wars, the wars. That's a lot of fear, kids, and it's coming home to roost now. Are we going to choose threat as a path to serenity yet again? Revenge as a path to forgiveness? Murder as a path to innocence? Well isn't that the more "realistic" position?

Perhaps, but only in the very short run, kind of like smoking crack leads to enlightenment. And fear is very much like a drug, with all the same issues of control that come with any drug. Fear controls us and makes the world predictable.

My perception is that we need to take a longer view. We have no choice. If we keep living from horror story to horror story, that's the treadmill we'll be running forever.

Yet this is clearly a spiritual question, and to do something about this obviously requires... self-improvement! Yoga! Meditation! Contemplation! Discipleship! Mentoring! Weight loss!

NO!

It requires only making the only choice we can ever make, which is to use our minds in any one moment to create or destroy. We can create ourselves or destroy ourselves, usually a little at a time, but it adds up, oh and it adds up fast. We can love or hate, we can express fear or faith. But only in any one moment. However you look at it, those are the choices. The mind works in binary code, and each conscious moment we make a choice to go one of two ways.

If you can see those thoughts going by, one at a time, usually very fast and out of control, you can see that there is a process in motion, and once seen that process becomes very exciting to experience -- and scary because we may realize that we are actually riding the bike of life and that means it's possible to fall off. To make any choice at all requires taking responsibility for that choice. Scary scary scary, berry berry.

So I ask you this, as a practical act. Please recognize anything that spreads fear, anxiety, paranoia and bad vibes as a terrorist. Please recognize that a terrorist was put in your mind and that element of you has an affinity for the fear that's being dished out. The inner terrorist or fear monger uses a variety of tactics, usually guilt being first among them, as its means of getting control. I mean this. In order to be free you need to give up guilt.

I know this is not easy. I know, I know, I know. I don't mean to make it look easy, and if you sat here with me while I was writing or lived through my living and my paradoxes and hung out or hung in while I was going through my shit you would know that it's not easy for me, but it's just all I can do to stay sane, so I live, and I write, and I write to you with the faith that maybe the words and the process will make it a little easier for both of us and we won't be alone, at least if we're scared we won't be alone in being scared.

And if we wake up, we wake up together and we won't be alone in experience awakening and freedom. Because as freaky as these times are, these are the moments when real change is possible, so if you've been wanting change, if you've been wanting progress, now is your chance, if you pay attention and remember to have fun, remember, remember (Eric)....

Good to be with you,

Eric Francis
on Puget Sound

Part Two tomorrow,