fedora core 2 xterm problem

[Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When I try running xterm it errors out because it can't open the DISPLAY. 
Where should I be reading in order to set up for gnopernicus operation 
with a speech synthesizer as output device?  I selected gnome as desktop 
environment for X and don't know where to proceed from here.