• Our response to 9/11 was to launch a war in Afghanistan. Then, when that was futile, we launched a "pre-emptive" war in Iraq, declared "Mission Accomplished" within 3 weeks, and 3 years later are still stuck in a dead-end.
• Our huge anti-terrorism efforts seem vulnerable to almost any amateur plot. Our response is wildly reactive; the slightest rumor generates expensive and debilitating over-reaction. How much more can we take?
• Meanwhile, airline freight and containers at sea ports are admittedly susceptible to delivery of much more deadly bombs.
• The media amplifies empty rhetoric; America threatens Iran, while we continue to buy their oil.
• Financial markets float with fragility. Imagine where the Dow, S&P and Nadaq would go if there was another serious terrorist attack on the US mainland.

In January 2006, Georgie Anne Geyer wrote in the San Diego Union,

"The modern world, if it is to be sane, is going to have to be much more of a woman's world than a man's. The operative words are not kill, but negotiate; not hate, but understand; not riot, but institutionalize."

Here's an interesting exercise: Write down as many Male and Female attributes as you can. Then review them against specific people you know, men and women. You'll find that many people have qualities from BOTH sides. It's NOT a matter of sexuality (being hetro or homosexual); it's having a "human" balance.

Modern business is completely masculine - businesses compete and win by "beating" the competition. One-upmanship is masculine. I play chess, or backgammon, to win; my wife plays to share my company. I beat my chest to proclaim victory, and sulk when I'm defeated; she enjoys playing together.

Terrorism is masculine - seeking to destroy. No one can compete by being more masculine. The Feminine ethos tries to recognize that terrorists are human, and tries to understand their view with the aim of understanding and negotiation.

Survival depends on development of a balance between the Masculine and Feminine Ethos.

I thought you might enjoy reading this poem by Rudyard Kipling:

The Female of the Species

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.