MILITIAS REVISITED

Do you know anyone in a militia? I don't. I don't even remotely know for sure that anyone I know has a friend in a militia.

Well ... wait a minute ... among my Facebook friends, I have come across some passionately anti-Obama attitudes, people who are anti-everything he's accomplished.

I don't live near these friends. I don't know that they or their relatives and hometown friends aren't part of the Militia Movement.

Feeling as I feel about war, about killing people, about finding a way to talk to your enemy, not to kill him or destroy his land or his possessions -- feeling that the Militia Movement is getting to be a real threat -- that they're gathering, drilling, rehearsing how to make a civil war ... Well, I wish I were a preacher.

(I'm remembering Jean Simmons in "Elmer Gantry," the movie about preachers in which she played a preacher.)

Could I put on a long white dress, carry a Bible and talk about civil war? I could ask the militia guys not to make war against their neighbors. Tell them -- "Talk with your neighbor, honor him, he's part of your family -- we are the family of each other. Don't let your politics affect your moral standards. Civil war in our country is -- oh God -- it's a wrong, foolish, terrible idea!"

Well, I don't have a long white dress, though I could borrow a Bible -- but I'm telling you, anyone who's reading this, wherever you live -- if you've got friends meeting and marching with a militia -- tell them loud and clear: Fight your enemy-neighbor with good deeds that help you communicate with him! Give him what you grow in your garden -- plants, flowers, food, dinner invitations, and an offer of friendship.

Talk with your neighbor, meet with your neighbor, coalesce, please. Even if it's just a sort of theoretical thing, hug each other and coalesce.