Everyone's Values Are Defined By What They

Americans Cannot Teach Democracy To The World Until They Restore Their Own.

The Burnt Odor In Washington Is From The Disintegrating Authority Of The Governing Classes.

The Point Is, The Political Reporters Are The Ones Who No Longer Understand The Ritual They Are Covering. They Keep Searching For Political Meanings In The Tepid Events When A Convention Is Now Essentially A Human Drama And Only That.

The Trauma Of 9/11 Stimulated Infinite Possibilities For Worry - Some Quite Plausible, But Most Inspired By Remote What-if Fantasies. A Society Bingeing On Fear Makes Itself Vulnerable To Far More Profound Forms Of Destruction Than Terror Attacks. The "terrorism War", Like A Nostalgic Echo Of The Cold War, Is Using These Popular Fears To Advance A Different Agenda - The Re-engineering Of American Life Through Permanent Mobilization.

Our Values Are Defined By What We Will Tolerate When It Is Done To Others. Everyone's Sense Of Virtue Is Degraded By The Present Reality. A Revolutionary Principle Is Embedded In The Global Economic System, Awaiting Broader Recognition: Human Dignity Is Indivisible. Across The Distances Of Culture And Nations, Across Vast Gulfs Of Wealth And Poverty, Even The Least Among Us Are Entitled To Dignity, And No Justification Exists Or Brutalizing Them In The Pursuit Of Commerce.