Well, here we are. Five years on. I probably said this last year, and the year before that, but I don't plan to watch any television reports or listen to any radio broadcasts for very long, and I'll do my best not to linger over the news websites and blogs. What's topmost on my mind is that I hate how cynical I've become about the news; I hate how I doubt everything I hear from our government. I hear about a potential suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case and the first thing that comes to mind is how long the government sat on this guy until it was most advantageous to "find" him. A new bin Laden tape or a tape from one of his millions of second-in-command henchmen, or another message from the apparently dozens of number-two men in al Qaeda, and it just rolls right off my back anymore.

I hate going to the places my mind goes when I read or watch or listen to the news anymore. I wonder what it will take for us not to lose our collective minds with just the slightest push; I mean, really, we're banning coffee and Dr. Pepper and hair gel now from airplanes? Seriously? Is that all it takes? Are we that susceptible to fearmongering? After everything we've been through as a country, are we such sheep that so few of us question what we're told? Why don't we demand more from our leaders and our media? Why don't we ask more questions?

And how do we ask those questions without becoming so dangerously cynical we fall right back into the old patterns that led us to 9/11 in the first place? I don't know. All I know how to do is to try and live my own life honorably and well and with a healthy dose of skepticism without cynicism—and to try to be aware when the media or my elected leaders of any party are attempting to manipulate me through fear. I do believe that one person trying his best to remain centered can make an enormous difference; I honestly believe that every time I refuse to be manipulated by fear I can help tip the balance back towards some kind of peace. Today, and onward but especially today, I'll work hard to remember that.

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