For being a peaceful people, we are in a dilemma, a catch 22, the damn if you do and the damned if you don't kind of dilemma. And here are two views of the current Terrorists War we find ourselves embroiled in:

The Taliban Supreme Leader says: "To those who fight us, they should know that we are, to the last man, a fighter willing to die for jihad."

Our famous American General, George S. Patton, in June 1944, said: "I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country…"

So, + In Memoriam +, we stand here with our heads bowed…

President George W. Bush, so often maligned in these pages, threw a pitch last night at the opening of the third game of the World Series that landed dead center in the strike zone of the American heart. Amid a crowd of nearly 60,000 people, as a hundred cameras beamed his image to the most remote corners of the world -- probably even into the cave where Osama bin Laden is hiding -- a young and ready rookie, our President of the United States, walked alone to the pitcher's mound, for all the world to see, fending off the protests of the Secret Service, whose agents must have been going nuts. The whole of the Western world was poised on that solitary stride, and civilization prospered with every step he took.

This time, last year, I, along with half the voters in this nation sat riveted to the television set to see who the lawyers, judges and the people would anoint as America's next president. I wasn't too happy with their choice until last night, and last night Mr. Bush did me proud. For that moment, I heard the full delirium of joy burst from a hundred million throats, like one voice shaking off the misty webs of fear, the acrid reek of Ground Zero, the invisible menace of anthrax, the worry and doubt about the war, blowing all that away in a long-sustained roar born of absolute freedom.

Do we dare spoil our imagery and wonder if the President wore a bullet-proof vest and never ask ourselves if they any one of us would have had the courage to stand capless in the bright lights of history and risk it all on the trajectory of a leather-clad ball of string as the whole world watched? I don't know if he wore a bulletproof vest, but I bet he wore a jock strap!

Earlier in this article I said that we, at 4 Points Press, stand with our heads bowed. I should have said that I stand in awe, with my head bowed, at the courage, fortitude and patriotism of this man who was elected to our presidency by less than a majority vote. I rest on that statement. This newsletter has had a change of editorial policy. From now on until the end of this President's last term, whenever he is referred to as America's leader, I will call him Mr. Bush or "The President," capitalized, when I refer to him specifically.

As in the New York Times, he will never again be simply "Bush" or "the president or "Dubya", a phrase I so wantonly used before." Of course, we give ourselves permission to call him George or any other appropriate Presidential diminutive.