Was the home in which you grew up a place of safety and comfort? I wish I could afford to commission a survey asking just this question of a large sample of Americans. We could compare the results with those from similar surveys done around the world. What do you think the percentage of "yes" answers would be? How would we compare to other countries? Talk amongst yourselves.

October is domestic violence awareness month. Around this time last year, George W. Bush made this statement in a related proclamation:

The social blight of domestic violence has continued to burden America into the 21st-century. Our homes should be places of safety and comfort. Tragically, domestic violence can and does turn many homes into places of torment. The grim facts speak for themselves: almost one-third of American women murdered each year are killed by their current or former partners, usually a husband. Approximately one million women annually report being stalked. And many children suffer or witness abuse in their homes, which can sadly spawn legacies of violence in families across America.

Domestic violence spills over into schools and places of work; and it affects people from every walk of life. Though abuse may occur in the seclusion of a private residence, its effects scar the face of our nation.

We know that a speechwriter wrote these words for the president. But I have no reason to doubt that he believes them himself. Whether he understands the extent to which domestic violence scars the face of our nation, and the many forms that domestic violence takes, is another thing. If President Bush did get these things, he'd be dedicating as much time, energy, and tax dollars on trying to eradicate this enemy within as he's proposing to spend on eradicating the enemy without.

A passage from the Vedas, the most sacred scripture of Hinduism, says, "What is within us is also without. What is without us is also within. He who sees difference between what is within and what is without goes evermore from death to death."

In looking at the major players on the world stage, it's pretty discouraging to see a lot of men who see difference between what is within and what is without, and I mourn the deaths that will result from their unenlightened leadership.

Let's take the current tyrant-of-the-month, Saddam Hussein. His childhood was neither safe nor comfortable. Born in 1937 to a poor peasant family, his father died young when Saddam was an infant, adding further stress to an already struggling family. Based on his actions, I'm sure that either abuse or neglect marred his childhood.

Osama bin Laden's upbringing, on the other hand, was very different. Born in Saudi Arabia to a Yemeni father and his fourth and final wife, who was Syrian, Osama was her only son, but the youngest
of his wealthy father's 20 surviving sons. His childhood was spent with nannies and tutors. After his father died in a 1968 helicopter crash, Osama inherited $80 million. He was 13. Although economically privileged, Osama was an outsider in Saudi society.

John Ashcroft is the son and grandson of Assemblies of God ministers. Who knows what may have gone on inside the Ashcroft house, where smoking, drinking, and dancing were not permitted by religious belief? I'd be willing to bet there was plenty of judgment about the "others." Now our attorney general covers the naked breasts of statues in his sight and holds daily prayer meetings for staff.

It's this blurring of the boundaries of separation of church and state that has most alarmed me this week. It seems to be a recurring theme. First, I watched, with some difficulty, a segment on my last videotape from JusticeVision. (If you don't know about this group and its Democracy University video series, you should check them out at http://members.aol.com/democracyu/. For $1 dollar per audiotape or $5 dollars per videotape, you get loads of information that goes unpresented in the mainstream media.)

The segment in question, called "Courage to Refuse," is based on an evening with refusenik Israeli soldiers at a temple in Beverly Hills, California. The rabbi who introduced them said they had restored her pride in being Jewish, which had been eroding with the aggressive actions of the Israeli government in the occupied territories. The difficult part was trying to actually hear the refuseniks speak, since there were protesters in the temple who kept interrupting them with taunts and boos.

Later that same night, I happened upon the 60 Minutes piece about the new stalwart backers of the state of Israel, American evangelical Christians, who believe Israel must hold on to the territories for the prophecies of the Bible (which include all Jews either dying or converting on judgment day) to come to pass. The piece included an interview in which Jerry Falwell stated his belief that Mohammed was a terrorist and set a terrorist model for all Muslims, and he looked excited that Armageddon seemed to be unfolding according to plan.

That led me to a biography show about Falwell. Jerry, in case you didn't know, was the son of an atheist father and a Southern Baptist mother. Dad was also an alcoholic, nightclub owner, and bootlegger who died from his alcoholism when Jerry was 15. Jerry was intelligent enough to be named valedictorian of his high school class, but he wasn't permitted to give the valedictory speech because of his reputation for gang fighting and stealing.

Falwell became involved with the girlfriend who would eventually become his wife by stealing the letters she wrote to Jerry's roommate, her fiancé, and writing back himself. Commenting on this behavior, Jerry has said, "All's fair in love and war," and, "There's only two kind of people in this world -- the quick and the dead." Jerry apparently considers himself among the quick. He certainly was quick to rally the evangelical troops when it looked like George W. Bush was going soft on the occupied territory issue. Falwell's faithful sent 100,000 e-mails to the White House, supporting Israel's occupation.

If you really want to know what we're up against, do a Web search for Armageddon and visit a few sites, or read the Book of Revelations. What looks to me like the result of St. John the Divine having one heck of a nightmare, or perhaps having eaten some crazy mushrooms with his tabouleh, is taken by many other than Charles Manson as the absolute gospel truth. While we're worried about Islamic fundamentalists and their vision of the world to come, we should know the preferred scenario of the fundamentalists among us and our own role in it. Basically, it ends with most of us sinners being tossed into the fire and brimstone of the bottomless pit.

How safe and comfortable do you feel now? If you don't want to be an extra in some biblical blockbuster, it's time to take some action. Check out the soon-to-be Web site, www.citizeninfo.org, for some ideas. Almost any action will do, except a violent one. Violence only begets more violence, whether within or without.

Pam Steager can be reached at pjsteager@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: October 11 - 17, 2002