On September 11th, a terrorists' act took the lives of some five thousand American citizens and the World Trade Center towers. For the next two weeks, we heard nothing but the happenings around the tragedy. The media was obsessed with giving us every detail they might uncover. And if they cannot uncover, they theorize. It took Bin Laden to wake up the media, that he was using it to promote his own interests and the media was acting on his behalf in broadcasting his announcements. And for that reason I wish to criticize the media. In order to capture the most viewers or listeners, they have inflated the accusation made by the president on Bin Laden - and he is being tried by the media, and not the court. I am in no way protecting Bin Laden, I am only protecting our Constitution, that a person is innocent until proven guilty. In our rush to judgement, we may lose more than we gain by losing some of the precious civil rights which we work so hard to obtain - first by throwing tea in Boston Harbon, then by fighting a Civil War for equality of the races.

In all of our previous opportunities for war, we always sent our soldiers "over there" - as the First World War song depicts. For the first time, we have to be the front line soldiers. On September 11th, it was clear that the war came home, and our front line has come to our front door. We must not surrender our rights of freedom to the despot, whoever he might be. We must continue our lives unchanged and carry on as usual. We must remember what Roosevelt has said, "the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." In the 60s, I've visited with all parties that were protesting. At some point, I was asked if I was freightened. I could honestly say no, because when I was asked by any of the militant groups what my position might be, I would simply tell them, "our greatest weakness is our biggest defense, 'freedom.'" And to my amazement, it made no difference what their political persuasion was, they were all protecting freedom. To end this, I must be say we must be strong, to continue our lives as normal, and must take the risk that the assassin might harm us. But remember the odds are 1 to 250 million.

- BJF III, October 2001