In church today, an elderly lady came forward to announce that her husband, who was not present, found out last week that he is on the terror watch list. The congregation's response was somewhere between horror and bemusement. First, there was an audible gasp usually reserved for news that a member of the congregation had been suddenly taken seriously ill; then there was scattered laughter taken at the utter absurdity that this man could be thought a terrorist by any one but a complete idiot.

The gentleman is nearly 70 years old. He is a college professor well known and widely respected in his field, which is related to earth science. He and his wife are politically active and have traveled the world in support of causes such as UNESCO. They are active in our church and well liked.

Said another member of the congregation, "This would be a better world if we had more terrorists like him."

He is attempting to get off the active list of terrorists, but was told he will remain on the inactive list and there is no way to be removed from that.

Calling Iraq, which had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, the "central front in the war on terror" is simply ridiculous in itself. This, however, is simply incredible. How can any one, knowing something like this, take seriously anything the Bush junta says or does about the phony war on terror they claim to be fighting? Being called a terrorist by Bush means about as much as being called an agent of the international Communist conspiracy by the John Birch Society.

I have been saying for five years that the Bush regime is inept, crooked and has a dangerous tendency to authoritarianism and even totalitarianism. Today, the grotesque follies of the Bush regime became a little less tolerable. They say things like this make us safer? We'll be safer when they are out of power behind bars in The Hague.

Let's hope that some day, after the neoconservatives are in a safe place in The Hague, that instead of keeping people such as this fine gentleman on a terror watch list, the watch list itself will be abolished and men such as the professor will be given an official public apology.