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While Professor Donaldson was refreshing herself with a drink of water before taking the next question, I looked around the room.

I spotted Dr. Jameson, my lunch host from last Friday. He was whispering something to the woman next to him. He seemed to be in somewhat of an agitated state.

The woman appeared to be trying to calm him down. She took a few glances to her left and right, as if she were checking to see whether they were attracting any attention.

Several times Dr. Jameson alternated between looking in the direction of Rachel Donaldson and staring at the floor in front of him. Given my viewing angle relative to, as well as my distance from, Dr. Jameson, his expression was hard to make out. He didn't seem to be a happy camper.

He could have been angry with his female neighbor. He might have been upset, for some reason, with the speaker. There may have been something that had occurred before my arrival which had disturbed him. Or, maybe, there had been some sort of Foundation difficulty that had arisen independently of the afternoon gathering.

Rachel Donaldson was done quenching her thirst and pointed to a person three or four rows in front of me who had raised her hand. Dr. Donaldson said: "Yes, Karen, you have a question?"

"Actually, Rachel," Karen said, "I wanted to hear something more about what you have to say with respect to some of these Muslim terrorist groups. A few of the comments in your talk briefly dealt with this issue, and I found your ideas somewhat intriguing.

"I've read quite a few reports recently which state that tragedies like the Oklahoma City bombing notwithstanding, the FBI considers Islamic groups to be the number one source of terrorist threats to America today. Moreover, there are many places internationally which seem to be suffering from the same kind of problem.

"I don't really have a specific question to ask you on this. Nonetheless, I would be interested in listening to whatever you have to say on this general issue."

Dr. Donaldson took a deep breath and exhaled somewhat forcibly through her mouth. She arched her eyebrows slightly. She studied the ceiling for a few seconds and, then, lowered her head and began to speak.

"I guess the first thing that should be addressed is people's tendency to look at the issue of terrorism in very superficial terms." As she finished her sentence, she looked at Karen, smiled and said: "Don't worry, Karen, you are not the sort of person I have in mind when I speak about superficial views of terrorism."

After a bit of scattered laughter had subsided, Professor Donaldson continued on. "The first part of my response, Karen, may not seem as if it has anything to do with your request, so I would ask for your patience and the patience of the rest of the people here. However, I believe, or hope, that before I am through, you will all see the relevance of the earlier portion of my comments to Karen's request concerning the issue of terrorism among certain Muslim groups."

Having, to a degree, prepared her audience for what was to follow, Professor Donaldson began."There are a lot of complex currents which run through both individuals and organizations. Historical, psychological, political, economic, religious, cultural, educational and ecological factors all are woven together in subtle dynamics that create an endless array of patterns in the life of an individual or organization.

"These patterns are not static entities. They change in various ways over time and across circumstances.

"Nevertheless, there usually are enough similarities and constants from one situation to the next which enable us to recognize various character traits in individuals, as well as in organizations. These traits serve as a kind of identifying signature through which we distinguish one group from another or one individual from another.

"On the other hand, despite the presence of certain identifiable, relatively constant traits, people and organizations do not necessarily act in the same manner on all occasions. In other words, they exhibit what is referred to as dispositional behavior.

"Dispositional behavior is the tendency of an individual or an organization to act in certain ways in some circumstances and, yet, still allow for the possibility of acting in different ways in similar circumstances on other occasions. A dispositional trait occurs often enough to serve as something of an identifiable or distinguishing feature, but such a tendency is mixed in with an array of other behavioral possibilities.

"Thus, to have a disposition toward violent behavior does not mean an individual or organization will be violent under all circumstances. What it means is that in the past an individual or organization has been violent on enough occasions to permit someone to make a judgement that establishes an association or linkage between the descriptive term "violent" and a given organization or individual."

Professor Donaldson took a quick sip of water from the glass sitting on the rostrum. As she was putting the glass back down, she remarked: "One problem with making judgements concerning people's dispositional behavior, however, is this. In making such judgements, people have very different ideas about how many occasions of, say, violence, need to be observed in order to claim that a linkage between the descriptive qualifier 'violent' and a given individual or organization is accurate or fair.

"One person will observe representatives of an organization act violently, in some way, on only one occasion. However, for whatever reasons, such an individual will feel justified in describing such an organization as 'violent'.

"Another person may see members of an organization exhibit a number of violent acts on various occasions. Yet, when the observed episodes of violent acts are considered in the context of a wide variety of other, non-violent acts carried out by members of the same organization, then the observer in question may not judge either the organization or its representatives as being characteristically inclined to violent behavior."

She paused for a moment, removed her glasses, took out a handkerchief, moistened the glasses with her breath, and began cleaning them. While going about the process of wiping her glasses, she proceeded to speak.

"Another problem in making judgements about the dispositional behavior of individuals and organizations revolves around the criteria and values we use for deciding what is to count as a violent act. Suppose, for example, individual 'A' attempts, unsuccessfully, to punch person 'B', and, in the process, person 'B' defends himself or herself and hits individual 'A'.

"Some observers may be inclined to call the act of the first individual a violent one, irrespective of whether or not that person landed a blow. Alternatively, if person 'B' is perceived not to have initiated the fight, then an observer may not count the act of person 'B' to be a violent one even though 'B' landed a blow.

"On the other hand, still other observers may count the acts of both 'A' and 'B' as violent ones. For these people, the question of who started the whole thing, or who, if anyone, landed a blow, is irrelevant."

Satisfied with the condition of her glasses, Professor Donaldson placed them back on her head. She spent a few seconds adjusting them, still talking while completing the task.

"Of course, an act does not necessarily have to be in the form of a physical blow to qualify or count as a violent act. For instance, some people may wish to count unkind or mean words as instances of violent behavior.

"In addition, emotional outbursts, acts of omission, betrayal, indifference, rejection and indoctrination all might count as instances of violent behavior under certain circumstances. Similarly, creating conditions which cause or perpetuate hunger, poverty, homelessness, injustice or illness could be judged by some people to be acts of violence.

"Alternatively, an individual might be considered to have done violence to the truth through acts of lying, disinformation, propaganda, and prejudice. Furthermore, requiring people to attend educational programs that do not necessarily serve the economic, political or spiritual needs of the students may, for some people, count as a form of violence.

"Some vegetarians may wish to charge meat-eaters with doing violence to animal life." Dr. Donaldson flashed a brief smile and said: "On the other hand, some vegetables may want to remind vegetarians of the violence the latter inflicts on the former."

There were some audible laughs in the audience. Perhaps, there were a few appreciative vegetables in attendance that I had failed to notice on the way to my seat. Dr. Donaldson let the noise subside.

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