Like Dec. 7, today is a blot in our history that doesn’t bear thinking on. As bad as the actual event, though, is the use to which it’s being put. Civil liberties, once set aside, are sometimes impossible to regain. Using the actions of terrorists to become terrorists ourselves will solve no problems.

Our first president, George Washinton, advised against foreign entanglements. His advice is just as sound in this era as it was then. The president has admitted that our &uot;adventure&uot; in Iraq is likely to cost us 87 billion dollars. Far more than health and education needs together would cost.

Sometimes when I think about the problems we are having on the domestic front, I remember what a woman of the French aristocracy, on her way to her death, during the French Revolution, said, &uot;Our indifference has brought us to this.&uot;

No county is rich when part of its population is homeless and children go to bed hungry. Our public schools used to be our greatest glory. Now there are schools in which the teachers have to provide supplies for their pupils.

Mentally ill persons are thrown into jail without thought as to their need and allowed to take their own lives without notice being taken. When did we cease to be a compassionate country? When did we begin to stand silently by and ignore the problems of our neighbors?

Thomas Jefferson reminded us that liberty was ours only if we were eternally vigilant. William Penn said that if we were not governed by God we would certainly be governed by tyrants. Being governed by God doesn’t mean sticking a pile of rock with the Ten Commandments engraved on it, up in our public buildings. It means loving good and our neighbors.

In his novel, &uot;The Way of All Flesh,&uot; Samuel Butler remarks that the members of the congregation in the little village church would be shocked by learning that any of their neighbors didn’t believe in Christian teachings, but equally shocked if any of their neighbors started living up to them.

When I hear certain television ministers speak, I know exactly what Butler meant.

Years ago I visited a Catholic school in New Orleans and dropped a donation in the poor box to aid in education for those who needed help. A little nun standing by said something that always seemed to me the very essence of tolerance. She said, &uot;I know you’re not a Catholic. When visitors come I always pray that the Catholics who visit will become better Catholics and I pray that the non-Catholics will become better whatever they are.&uot;

A person’s religion can be defined as his highest sense of right. But if our highest sense of right is inspired, it will lead to an improvement not only in our own way of life, but to an enrichment in the lives of all those with whom we come in contact.

The term &uot;holy war&uot; is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a holy war. Someone once said, &uot;Anger is the thing from which nothing grows.&uot; Of course it is right to defend ourselves at this stage of civilization. We don’t do it by invading a country that had nothing to do with an attack on us. In fact, attacking a country simply because a criminal element from that country attacked us, isn’t going to help much either.

In truth, it’s rather difficult to know what to do when the terrorists themselves are willing to die, in order to kill us. It seems to me our best defense is in having reliable informers and then paying attention to them.

I admit that I haven’t had much faith in the FBI since the McCarthy era when some of my friends were questioned as to my political activities. What I was supposed to be guilty of was organizing the African Americans in Albert Lea for a revolution. At that time there were no African Americans in Albert Lea, as far as I know.

As for organizing a revolution, I can’t even get my house organized as it should be.

Any organization stupid enough to see me as a possible revolutionary can’t be entirely dependable. Not that I hold the suspicion against anyone. I enjoy my life greatly, but it is rather bland. To think that someone actually thinks of me as a threat sort of brightens things up.

I can’t help wishing, though, that our detecting organizations would concentrate a little more fully on those who are actually dangerous.

(Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.)