■"In Terrorism Fight, Government Finds a Surprising Ally: FedEx: Since 9/11, Firms Cooperate More Often With Officials; Implications for Privace; UPS and the Post Office Balk," by Robert Block, Wall Street Journal, 26 May 2005, p. A1.

■"A Natural Alliance: Coming together to fight poverty," op-ed by David Brooks, New York Times, 26 May 2005, p. A29.

The willingness of FedEx to cooperate fairly extensively with the U.S. Government on terrorism issues is yet another example of the rule set reset following 9/11. Yes, there is a patriotic tinge to it, but it's also about good business practice in a world where being robust and secure is a competitive advantage:

Business associations say the government's call to arms gets a good reception in part because companies want to prevent the disruption and bad publicity that would come from terrorists using their systems. "All we are trying to do is to protect our assets and not have our assets used for bad purposes, says Fred Smith," FedEx's CEO.

This is the essence of the military-market nexus.

But there is also the spiritual dimension. If the "good life" is good for us, then we ought to be able to share it with others. That's not just good business, that's good faith, and so, as highlighted yet again in an op-ed (this time David Brooks), we see more and more Beltway experts begin to realize the growing power of the faith-based community in shrinking the Gap. Evangelicals, as Brooks says, "feel less represented by the culture war-centered parachurch organizations, and better represented by congregational pastors, who have a broader range of interests and more passion for mobilizing volunteers to perform service."

You have no idea how many audience members have come up to me after talks, saying that their church spent a Sunday morning debating the moral implications of PNM's call to shrink the Gap. People are looking for ways to connect to a Global War on Terrorism that involve the "everything else" other than war, and thank God for these people becauseóultimatelyóthis is how we all win in the end.