I suspect I'm going to have to stop reading this thread, because it isn't about Tom but about rage and frustration and politics. Just the antithesis of what Tom was about. But ... I'll try once more.

Tom's being in Iraq, and his activism, were not about politics. They were about standing up for the highest and best in the human spirit. It was about standing up for the powerless.

His captors also never seemed to me to be about politics. They were/are angry, violent men who felt rage at not having control of their country and their lives. They wanted to take out that rage on somebody.

Tom had a deep understanding of the rage and frustration of the powerless. IMO, if (and when, for I'm sure he did) Tom prayed for his captors, it wasn't so they would become nonpolitical or cease being a threat. It was so they could stop being so terribly at war within themselves.

Similarly, it would be totally against his principles to feel rage and hatred against Bush & co., even though he couldn't stand many of the things they do.

We're living through a ghastly, destructive time and as individuals most of us don't seem to be able to do a whole lot about it. We do have a choice though, as to whether we stay at war within ourselves. As I see it we need to keep the anger, keep our determination, but overcome the inner rage and certainly work to overcome feelings of hatred.

I apologize for the preachy tone. Don't know how else to say it. Trying to spread Tom's ideals of inner peacefulness and outer activism is the one thing I can do right now for Tom's family, whom I know well, and one of his dear friends who is a close friend of ours as well. And it feels like the one thing I can do for Tom.

I believe in this approach to life. I have been quietly "preaching" these ideas to friends for ... well, since the U.S. invaded Iraq in spite of protests around the world. I figured the world might not be at peace, but I can be at peace and try to create a peaceful -- not passive or accepting -- space around me as much as possible.

Think about it. That's the best memorial Tom could have IMO -- for people to think about his life and what it represents.