Speaks Volumes

Better Late Than Never

It has been quite some time since I've added to this Blog. I started it when I way on my way to Denver, Colorado for the Democratic National Convention. Real life has caught up with me although I am still very active and I hope this will be the beginning of more insights and additions. Just to catch up a bit, I've included photos of the invitation I received from the
Inaugural Committee and photos of the program from the actual Inauguration.

Aside from all of this, I received this video which I've shared with some and now wish to share with many. No words need to be spoken. It speaks for itself and the work we've yet to do. How about you?

Restoring America's Soul: The Hero's Journey Of Barack Obama

It has been some time since I've returned to post some thoughts about what is about to take place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C. It has not been for a lack of something to say but my contnuing to digest what is about to take place. So, as the nation and world prepares for this moment, on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Day - the National Holiday - with Inaugural tickets in my hand and the prospect of what will be the scene in our Nation's capitol, I came across this article by Dr. Judith Rich I'd like to share with you. It is lengthy but I sincerely hope you will read it in its entirety and even share with others.

Posted January 13, 2009

Part I

It is by going down into the abyss
that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble,
there lies your treasure.

Joseph Campbell

We began to explore the idea of the soul's recurring requirement to descend, to find its true nature in response to an inner call to deepen. In answering this call, the soul and the being in whom it dwells, often encounters loss and suffering, and is challenged to carve out character and find courage by facing up to and taking on its greatest fears.

This then, is the archetype of the "Hero", one who takes this journey on behalf of his own unfolding and for the greater good of the whole.

Restoring wholeness is the ultimate task of the Hero. One could say the soul chooses our bodies as its earthly vehicle, necessary to ferry it to the worldly classrooms where teachers abide and lessons unfold.

One such candidate for Hero has presented himself on the world stage today. President-elect Barack Obama. Only time will tell if he fulfills this destiny. But the stage is set. The mission is complex, as heroic missions often are.

The mission? Restore the Soul of America. An archetypal heroic assignment if ever there was one.

Approximately eighty per cent of the American people feel our country has lost its way. But what does that actually mean and what are the implications for us and for our new president?

Our Part

Surveying the wreckage left behind by the absence of leadership for, let's just say, far too long, we see a country that has lost its rudder: that being the principles upon which the founding fathers wrote into our constitution 232 years ago. The last eight years have been a wholesale betrayal of that vision and of the pillars of the democracy, upon which we as a nation, have stood.

With no captain at the helm of this ship, we've gone seriously off course, and find ourselves having crashed up on the rocks. Huddled together as citizens, we cling to the rocks, wondering what will become of us? What will become of America? Will we make it and if not, what's the alternative?

We're just beginning to wake up to the realization that something more is going to be required of us as citizens. We can no longer simply be passengers on this ship and go to sleep for the next four years. We need to develop our "citizenship" muscles and take an active role in helping to guide this vessel.

There is a certain responsibility waiting to be shared by every American. By responsibility, I don't mean burden or obligation. I'm talking about a more enlightened understanding of what responsibility is: as in, the "ability to respond". This implies we have a choice about showing up. Or not. However, know this:

The soul's journey requires that it discovers its true nature and expresses itself authentically, so it's going to find a way to make that happen, whether we like it or not. And this is where the "dark night of the soul" comes in.

If we don't respond to the inner call to deepen, if we manage to distract ourselves successfully, drown out our ability to hear the inner summons through our addictions to substances, or the delusion that something outside ourselves will be the answer, we will miss the call. In which case, we'll create yet more challenges, more crises, more opportunities to do the work.

As James Hillman says, "The soul has its own ancestors", which is to say it has its own agenda. So the Call will come again, perhaps to a new generation. But it will come.

The question is: will we leave it to another generation to clean up the mess we've made? Or as one reader questioned last time: "Are we of the journey?" Buddha instructed us to "be in the world, but not of it". Perhaps "Are you of the journey?" is the question for these times.

We must be willing to get rid of
the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

Joseph Campbell

The outcome of Barack's Hero's Journey to restore the Soul of America is one for which we must all share responsibiity. We are the soul of America. He is the one we've chosen to lead us away from the abyss and guide us back to our roots.

Have we chosen well? Is he up to the task? What is our role on this journey?

Here is a simple truth: Barack can lead us, but we must do our part. What that is, is up to each of us to discover. It is not cast in stone. It dwells in possibility. But make no mistake. There is a part that each of us is meant to play in restoring the soul of our country.

Last week, in response to someone's comment, I described my vision of how the soul would look, if it were a "thing", which of course, it's not. But I thought it might look like a many faceted, mirrored ball that hangs above a ballroom floor. The ball turns and reflects the light in all directions. Each facet is unique, yet part of the whole. Each facet reflects the light from an angle that only it occupies. Together, the facets form a magnificent, brilliant, illuminated sphere.

Consider the possibility that our part is to be the brilliant Beings we came to be. The Hero's journey we each take is what polishes us, it's what turns us into the gems we're meant to be. Just as a diamond begins as carbon atoms and is formed through extreme heat and pressure in the darkness deep within the Earth, the fire of the Hero's Journey transforms us, burning away what doesn't serve, leaving its ashes as the compost from which new life begins.

Our part is to be willing to do the work and not shy away. In so doing, we polish. Our job is to polish. Chop wood, carry water, polish.

And then, there is Barack's Part.

Barack Obama: Dark Knight of the Soul

How perfect is it that America, in its "dark night of the soul" is being led by its first "Dark Knight"? Kind of like Batman! Barack was a Marvel comic book fan as a child and I see they're already publishing an edition of him teaming up with Spider-Man.

True to the mythic hero narrative, Barack arrives on the scene, just in the nick of time to help us sort through the wreckage wrought by the ignorance and indifference of the past eight years. His task is to sift through the ashes of greed and corruption and the arrogance of power so that we might once again find and reconnect with the core truths that define who we are as a nation and as a people.

Hillary Clinton was right. Our Dark Knight has been preparing for this journey since the day he was born. Only she meant it like a slam. From an archetypal perspective, her mockery of him spoke to the very core of Obama's mission, only she spoke without wisdom or reverence for the task itself. I'm referencing it as an essential part of the mythic journey of Obama and how he came to be given this task of reclaiming and restoring the soul of his country.

It all makes sense when viewed from this perspective. This seeming impossibility of his presidency did come down like the Red Seas parting. The stars (both Hollywood and Celestial) lined up for this. Hillary declared this during the campaign in the form of mockery. Yet perhaps unbeknown to her, she spoke a certain truth.

This man, of mixed descent, who described his father as "black as pitch" and his mother as "white as milk" felt like an outsider most of his life. No stranger to loss and suffering, (essential to the Hero's Journey), he saw his father only once at age 10, and lost his mother to ovarian cancer when he was 34. We grieved with him when his beloved grandmother died, only 2 days before his election. Yet he was able to transform his suffering into a mission to serve the greater good. Golden Boy meets Dark Knight.

Barack has already paid some dues, but there will be more to come. He may have raised record amounts of money to get elected, but that just got him in the door. There are dues yet to be paid, for which money will not be the means of exchange.

Opportunities
to find deeper powers within ourselves
come when life seems most challenging.

Joseph Campbell

As citizens, we will need to pay our dues as well. Indifference and ignorance come with a high price tag. Hubris and arrogance of power exact a heavy toll. The bill is due, America. Call in the Dark Knight. I think we're ready to take this on.

In honor of Obama's inauguration, I share this inspiring video with you. As you watch it, see the Hero's Journey of Barack being played out before us.

Godspeed, Barack and America. May the wind be at our backs. And just for good measure, shall we all join hands as we walk down this long, dark hallway together?

Will you do your part and inaugurate yourself along with Barack on Tuesday, January 20th?

What is your part in helping to restore the soul of America? What are your hopes for President Obama?

If you could ask of him or tell him the one thing you think is most important for the restoration of our collective soul, what would that be?

How Will President Obama Deploy His Internet Army?

Obama campaign mobilized a powerful Internet organization. Now, observers speculate about how he will continue to use it to help him govern.

Washington - A powerful new lobbying force is coming to town: Barack Obama's triumphant army of 3.1 million Internet-linked donors and volunteers.

In a mass e-mail thanking them, written moments before his Grant Park victory speech, Obama put them on notice. "We have a lot to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next," he wrote.

Many are eager. "I'm going to be sitting at the phone, asking, 'What do you want me to do next? I'm ready,' " said volunteer Courtney Hood, 37, a mother of three from Owings, Md.

How Obama will use his ardent laptop-armed cadres is unclear. So is the extent to which they'll rally behind his priorities, press him for their own or both.

Joe Trippi, the Internet politics guru whose computer geeks made Howard Dean a contender in 2004 and who went on to design Obama's socially networked campaign machine, offers a provocative and educated guess.

Trippi predicted that Obama would use his forces, first and foremost, to intimidate congressional foes of his agenda, rally his allies and forge "one of the most powerful presidencies in American history."

Certainly, Obama reaches the White House with the biggest, best organized, fastest-acting grass-roots army in the history of presidential campaigning.

Moreover, because his Internet operation was miles ahead of Republican John McCain's, Obama's liberal-to-libertarian electronic activists are in a position to dominate the new political medium much as conservative Republicans dominate talk radio.

As for political utility, many thousands of volunteers such as Hood can be deployable within hours, with great precision and at almost no cost, thanks to the campaign's state-of-the-art information-management systems.

The president-elect's political operatives know, for example, the ZIP codes and hence the congressional districts of each of Obama's million most active campaigners, those who volunteered via his Web site mybarackobama.com. It's a social network that the campaign set up to communicate needs, events and assignments to volunteers.

The profiles that Obama campaigners submitted to the site also reveal which supporters in each district are environmentalists, concerned about health care or keen on government reform.

Moreover, because the so-called "MyBO" site quantified volunteers' participation and fundraising totals digitally, there's a numeric score for each participant's success. It's even adjusted to give more credit for recent help.

"We really know who Obama's community leaders are," issue by issue, said Thomas Gensemer, the managing director of Blue State Digital, the Washington-based mobilizer of online communities created by four Dean campaign veterans.

Instead of e-mailing members of Congress, Gensemer continued, Obama's most effective supporters will meet with them in their district offices and press them at local town hall meetings.

Trippi offered a more dramatic scenario: "Obama will be able to say these are the 10 members of Congress standing in our way on health care. Basically, it'll be the president and the people united, with some members of Congress in between, which won't be a very comfortable place to be."

A million Obama activists nationwide translate to an average of nearly 2,300 for each of 435 congressional districts. "And if someone in my district had a list of them with e-mail addresses and a lot of good will, I'd pay a lot of attention to them," said Scott Lilly, a senior staffer for Democrats in the House of Representatives for nearly 30 years.

One question, Lilly continued, is whether Obama's activists are concentrated in liberal urban Democratic districts, where Obama needs no help, and not much of a presence in conservative ones, where resistance is most likely.

For example, Lilly wondered how numerous Obama supporters are in, say, Panama City, Fla. It's a hub of Florida's 2nd Congressional District, in the state's conservative Panhandle and represented by Allen Boyd, a Blue Dog Democrat.

Asked that question in late October, Alvin Peters, the chairman of the Democratic Party in Bay County, which includes Panama City, responded with shock and awe: "I've never seen so much political energy in this district ever," he said. "It's 10 to 20 times more than Kerry - maybe 1,400 in little Panama City alone - and it's all local!"

That's great news for Obama, whose legislative fate may depend most on his ability to persuade conservative Democrats.

What his supporters will accomplish in Republican districts is another uncertainty. "If they're networked into PTA meetings and barbershops and call-in talk shows, they can let people know that their guy isn't doing what we want him to do. That could be an extraordinarily powerful tool," Lilly said.

He and others presume that Obama will pass on his activist database to the Democratic National Committee and/or a new nonprofit that takes direction from the Obama White House. That's permitted under MyBO's privacy policy, which says that its names and data may be turned over to "organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives."

The Federal Election Commission is unlikely to step in, said Washington lawyer Jan Baran, who's a specialist on federal election law, ethics and lobbying. "The FEC has generally laid off regulating Internet-based activity by political organizations and individuals," Baran said.

Reform advocates who see the Internet as a tool want to reduce Washington's grip on power by providing universal Internet access to more government deliberations and records. It's an idea that appeals to lots of Obama activists, who can be expected to push for it.

Obama has promised to create a "transparent and connected White House." He's also promised to appoint a Cabinet-rank chief technology officer to promote openness in federal agencies and help the new president communicate with the electorate. More generally, Obama supports expanding high-speed broadband Internet access, which roughly half the nation lacks.

An easy and popular step toward transparency would be for Obama to reverse the Bush administration's secretive policy on Freedom of Information Act requests for government records. That could be done by declaration, without congressional involvement, noted John Wonderlich, the program director of the Washington-based Sunlight Foundation, which promotes transparency.

Visionaries in the realm of Internet politics, several of them well-known among Obama activists, would like to see Obama go further and use Internet social networks for ideas and collaborative problem-solving.

Surprisingly or not, it's already happening.

What President Obama Means

A friend from Las Vegs, Nevada framed this historic election perfectly right about noontime on election day. "The hands that picked the cotton are the hands that are picking the next President of the United States."

Barack Obama's election is laden with so much significance it seems an impossible task to even attempt any systematic unpacking. But this much is for certain: the full impact of the Oval Office being occupied by a black man has yet to hit home. This single fact alone overshadows every other facet of his campaign and of his election.

Call it a cliché, but it is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime. Some of my friends, as recently as midnight election night, still didn't believe it possible. But here we are at a moment of national redemption. And it's a victory that conservatives and liberals, right and left, should claim and celebrate with equal pride.

This is no longer the America of forty or even of twenty-five or as few as ten years ago. Things do change and, sometimes, for the better. Racism, ignorance, bias and prejudice have neither evaporated nor been abolished. But anyone who believes our boiler-plate political discourse emerges intact from this stunning moment needs to be dispatched to the same pasture where John McCain will listlessly spend the rest of political eternity. No longer can it be said that a black child cannot dream of becoming President. No longer can it be said that Americans are but some TV-doped sheeple, easily managed and manipulated by some sort of right-wing media conspiracy. You thought that nothing would ever be the same after 9/11? Well, how about after a black man, his black wife and two black children move into the White House?

It's unimaginable to yet measure what impact a President Obama will have on the way America is seen around the globe. It will be as confounding for others to think about us the same way they did a year ago as we did about ourselves. And, if I might say, just in the nick of time.

Perhaps History itself demanded that we pass through the pain and humiliation of the Bush era in order to merit the relief granted by this election. We have been forced to suffer through the most vile of administrations, one that has shown total disdain for the constitution, for the rule of law, for basic humanity. And this is the second most important takeaway from the election. After nearly three decades in which the power structure pandered to, exploited, refined and capitalized on all the worst of our collective base instincts, along comes a candidate who speaks only to our most humane and compassionate side. That says something striking about Barack Obama. And says it even more about the American people. One more victory we shouldn't hesitate to claim.

Third, this is a generational change that makes not only good headlines and easy reporting narratives, but which also serves as a great gift to our children and theirs. The election of Barack Obama liberates a new generation from the now-dreary debates of a self-obsessed Boomer generation - be they wilting flower children or graying warriors of the right. I might be quick in saying so, but Obama's landslide also effectively buries the most vicious of American political gargoyles - the culture war. If not to Siberia, well then to the wilds of Alaska, have been exiled those who have so cynically divided and polarized us on the bogus issues of Gays, Guns and God. Good riddance.

I make no predictions as to where this tectonic shift will lead us. As McCain himself said recently, "Nothing in American is written." The future, thankfully, is finally in the hands of a new generation. And at the very moment I write this sentence, I can still see thousands of young people exploding in ecstasy as NBC officially projected Obama as the 44th President of the United States. What a moment! I, too, am overcome by emotion as it all seems at once so unreal and yet so well-earned by all of us. It has taken me some time to digest and internalize this historical time (hence the delay in my posting another snippet of my thoughts here). Having worked tirelessly for months - through the primaries - the Democratic Convention in Denver - the hard work following right up to the first early morning 5:00 a.m. phone call on Election Day I guess it really had not hit me - this is what so many had worked for.

The last of it was working hard with a team right up to the last minute to ensure we turned Pennsylvania 'blue'. When that was announced I realized we had accomplished one of our missions from Connecticut. I can see myself raising my hands in victory and saying "YES!"

This was not a single win. We as Americans all won. I particularly want to thank my family and friends near and far in supporting what I was doing and believing enough to give selflessly of their time by rolling up their sleeves and becoming Obamamaniacs. My daughters, my sisters, my mother and friends around the country. Collectively we joined thousands of believers and stepped up to the plate. Thank You.

Viewing the news reports throngs poured into the street and strangers embraced and cried and danced. No one knew what loomed in the future. It was enough to know, in fact, that once again a future wasn't impossible.

We know that a black man whose middle name is Hussein has been elected president. The ghosts of Jim Crow and Bull Connors have been exorcised from the most tenebrous shadows of American life.

We know that we have witnessed the collapse of entire political era based on the narrowest and greediest principles of social Darwinism.

We know that Americans resisted and rejected a puerile campaign of fear commenced, at first, by Hillary Clinton and shamelessly escalated by a doddering John McCain. We know that Americans are capable of repudiating those who would impose upon us a politically illiterate huckster as a vice-presidential candidate.

We know that Americans can no longer tolerate the exercise of torture in the name of freedom. We know that Americans will soon demand the shut down of Guantanamo. We know we will no longer suffer the indignity of watching a President unable to speak in public and incapable of understanding and - uninterested in--the world around him. We know we will have a new President who demonstrates an intelligence, a thoughtfulness and a seriousness that has long been a stranger to the White House.

We know that when asked if we could do it, we answered with a throaty Yes We Can.

And we did.

Just adding this video from a 3rd grader that I found moving.

Bridges for Obama

When was the last time you can remember one person affecting the world?

While it is always dangerous to predict the outcome of elections, here is one prediction that is certain to hold up: approximately half of U.S. voters will be ecstatic on Tuesday night and the other half (or slightly less than half) will be devastated. And the winning side will see their victory as a triumph of good over evil, and the losing side will see their loss as a giant step on the road to ruin for the country they love.

Has there ever been a presidential election so polarizing? Certainly plenty of folks were outraged in 2000, when the outcome came down to a Supreme Court decision and Democrats were sure they'd been robbed. Eight years later, with the country in ruins, we are still hearing the angry rhetoric of blue state-red state division. And that worries me. Because on Wednesday, November 5th, one of these two candidates is going to have to find a way to take the devastated, bruised, outraged feelings of millions of Americans and cauterize their wounded psyches, make them believe that they still have a vital voice in this democracy. If you support Obama, you're thinking, "No problem - he has been the voice of inclusion from the get-go!" But if you support McCain, you've been led to believe that the election of Obama will lead the country into Godless Socialism, a place where terrorists will have free rein and taxes will rise and abortionists will thrive. It's important to understand that millions of people believe this. And they will be just as angry about their guy losing as Obama supporters will be if THEIR guy loses. And these are not people who are threatening to leave for Canada. Some (certainly not most) of these people are just plain threatening.

So even as I hold my breath for the election results, I find myself fast-forwarding to the day after, and the days after that, when one person will be expected to not only clean up the enormous mess -- war, recession, global warming -- he will inherit from the horrendous blunders of he past 8 years, but also to convince Americans that he truly represents all of them. Our country's strength is that we are passionate about our beliefs, including the one that allows for a peaceful transition of power every four or eight years. We don't stage a coup, no matter how tempting.

Predictions are dicey, but it's pretty safe to predict that -- win or lose -- Americans will honor the outcome of a fair race, with the emphasis on FAIR. With passions running so high, on both sides, any appearance of voter fraud will be extremely harmful to the already enormous burden facing the winner: to convince voters who have spent many months TAKING sides that they need to be on the SAME side when it comes to healing what ails us.

I realize I've provided a lot of information for reading, but wanted to share with you an email I received from a friend who early voted.

This evening, I was drawn to a post with a graphic stating "I Voted Today and Cried". Because I too, cried when I voted today. I anticipated that the blogger's tears and mine were as a result of having voted for Barack Obama. Much to my surprise, however, our votes were not the same, as "none of the above" - type vote was the vote cast by the blogger. I certainly respect the blogger's right to cast the vote based upon the clear and concise reasons stated. But, I must say that I was deeply saddened by that decision. Even my sadness, however, could not negate the fact that one of the greatest gifts we have is the freedom to vote for our leaders.

Our right to vote is a gift for which struggle, tears, and even blood were the price. We have the gift of being able to engage in a revolution of sorts to say "enough is enough" or "its all good" or to even "none of the above". Having said that, however, the following is a repost of the comment I left to the blogger who exercised the gift and right to cast a vote, albeit different from my own:

I, too voted today and cried. I cried because today my daughters voted for the first time. I cried because today I voted for a man I believe to be better suited for this nation than his opponent. I voted for a man…and only a man…that I pray will live up to his desire to make this a better nation for my daughters. Who did I vote for? Does it really matter? I voted for a man…and only a man…who, in the end, will be judged by the same standard and measure that we all will be judged and measured. It has always bothered, saddened, and even infuriated me that as an African-American you must be better than, smarter than, grander than others in order to be validated. You must walk in two worlds to be Black enough and not too Black. You must please everyone, agree with everyone, and be down but not too down.

Yet, others not of our hue do not have to do the same. In the history of this Nation, no other presidential candidate has been held up to such scrutiny. No other presidential candidate has been required to throw or not throw an associate under the bus. No other presidential candidate has been required to defend his judgement, integrity, or family. No other candidate, not one.

And why? Is he not a man and only a man as each of the 43 other presidents of this nation? Why must he be held to a higher and different standard or measure. Today, I voted for a man…and only a man…who I believe is the best candidate in this presidential election. In the past, I have voted for the man…and only a man who I believed was the best candidate in that presidential election. Today, I voted and cried because I voted for Barack Obama who is a man and only a man.

Yes, today I voted. Today, I voted without reservation or concern. Today I voted and cried. Today, I WAS PROUD!

This Election, Plates of Human History Will Shift

Just thought I'd add a little humor

Never before have we faced a Presidential election with such potential to tilt the plates of human history. Regardless the tally, a historic shift will take place on November 4, 2008, to what extent is uncertain. Will the shift be slight - or tectonic?

Months ago, on a cold January afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, this question, among others, shot through the mind of the Change Candidate, who was part Kenyan and part Kansan. An American son. Heading towards the convention to await caucus results, a wispy voice agitated him: "is America ready?" Time seemed to freeze and silence ensued.

As we stand on the cusp, I hope we silence the voices and America shakes the electoral map and delivers a mandate that registers 10.0 on the Richter. Hope is that thing the opposition mocks, yet it is the precursor to change, and after a glimpse of the ragged political landscape, it is nigh time for it.

For the rich have gotten richer and corporations have pocketed record profits, yet we have seen neither the creation of jobs nor dollars trickling down to the middle class. Despite supply-siders' best intentions, unemployment has risen and wages have stagnated in the midst of escalating food, energy, education, and healthcare costs. In addition, economists predict we might be facing the deepest and longest economic recession since The Great Depression.
Meanwhile, our esteemed leaders in Washington, on both sides of the aisle, are stuck in their own quagmire. In the middle of a mortgage crisis, financial crisis, energy crisis and national security crisis - the last thing the American people need right now is a political crisis.

Drastic problems require drastic solutions, and the moment is upon us to choose between new leadership and the politics of yesterday. The unknown versus the unacceptable. Can we overcome fear or will we trudge the same old road with the Devil We Know?

With wisdom beyond his years, the Change Candidate has a capacity for grasping complex global problems and seeks to understand both sides of every issue before putting forth solutions. He's developed solutions such as an economic plan that will provide three times as much financial relief to the middle class when compared to the competition's pitch. 80% of economists surveyed believe the Change Candidate has a better grasp of the economy. I'll take his economic team of Buffett, Volcker, Rubin, and four Nobel Prize Laureates over his rival's crack team of "Deregulation" Gramm, "Company Killer" Fiorina, and "Trickle-down" Laffer, who all have the same economic message of: don't change a thing.

He proposes a sound defense strategy as we fight a global terrorist network spread across 80 countries with most of our troops mired in one. The fact that the Rand Corporation has reported al Qaeda's numbers are back to pre-9/11 strength has validated the current stratagem's inefficacy. The Change Candidate wants to transition troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight the war on terror, to focus on those regions where terrorists are actually located.

His health care plan will cover 34 million uninsured, and has the best chance of making health care more affordable, accessible, efficient and higher in quality, according to the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund.

As far as energy independence, even T. Boone Pickens, that Swift Boat bankroller, finds the Change Candidate's diversified energy proposals, in which drilling is but a stop-gap, superior to the Devil We Know's long term solution - a crapshoot predominantly based on drilling that has been promulgated by his Party's mass hysteria. A plan characterized by demagogic war cries of "Drill, baby, drill" that sound eerily similar to the incantations of disciples on the verge of englutting a ceremonial Jonestown toast.

More importantly, the Change Candidate possesses a temperament cut from the same swath as the prudent calm of The Great Emancipator who healed a shattered union. His unique gift of igniting the American spirit invokes memories of a young Irish Catholic who heralded to friends and foes alike, that a torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans. He rekindles images of a Reverend who preached of a dream on a mountaintop, now on the brink of actualization. He's the type of leader who can renew our love of country and improve our world image. Not unlike a b-movie actor who commanded the evil empire to "tear down that wall", so that other citizens of the world might share in our freedom.

Naysayers will claim he's too inexperienced, too liberal, too shallow, too soft. Fear mongers will decry him for being too black, too white, too Muslim, too Marxist, and too close to terrorists.

I admit, like Chris Matthews, I felt a chill when the Change Candidate tried to describe it: "There's somethin' going on out there, somethin' strirrin' in the air."

The winds of history swirled in Iowa that fateful January night. The tall, lanky black kid with protruding ears ascended the platform and looked upon a throng of mostly white supporters, and he felt the answer. I watched the answer crawl across the bottom of the television screen: Obama 38% - Edwards 30% - Clinton 29% that proclaimed, "America is ready."

He said hope is not settling for the world as it is, but is having the courage to remake the world as it should be. He sent a message to peoples of all creeds, races, lifestyles and religions that he will serve and represent all Americans, and not any one ideology, political party or tradition.

"Because we are not a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States of America. And in this moment, in this election, we are ready to believe again."

On election night, I pray that the fault lines crack causing Chris Matthews's leg to tingle, because it will signal an end to this drama. It will signal that Change is coming to the White House - and its name is Barack Obama.

PA Steel Town Undecideds Torn: Hardpressed But Wary of Government Assistance

JOHNSTOWN, PA

Since a supporter at a Palin rally here waved a stuffed monkey with an Obama headband, and the county's own congressman declared "There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area," Johnstown, PA has become a symbol for the simmering racism that is coming to a boil in the last days of the election and threatening to spill into the voting booth.

But when I asked residents about Johnstown, most begin not with the rally of October 11, but with May 31, 1889, when a dam broke and a wave six stories high crashed into the town.

The Johnstown Flood, which killed over 2,000 people, not only fixed the town in the American imagination, but also served as a morality tale. The dam sat on the private retreat of wealthy businessmen, including Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Fricke, who made their fortunes on the backs of many of the steel workers who lived in Johnstown. The steel magnates had neglected repairs on the dam, and the town residents had ignored the rising waters year after year. By the time the rain started to fall in the spring of 1889, the habits of the haves and have-nots were too well-established to avoid catastrophe.

For over a century, Johnstown, like much of Pennsylvania, was a center of manufacturing, flourishing under Bethlehem Steel. Generations worked side-by-side in the mills, and the laborers--predominantly German, Welch, Irish, Slovac, Croatian, and Czech--settled into multi-family Victorian homes.

The natural beauty of the valley only contributes to the sense of an American pastoral. Trees grow thick up the mountainside, and the trestles of the bridges are stuck firmly in the mud. Rachel Paul, 52, who has returned to her hometown from Boston to make calls for Obama, said, "Something about this place gets into your heart." Yet, in the last twenty years, the population has dropped from over 100,000 to under 25,000 as young people have left for college or to find work. The five Catholic churches on the edge of town have had to close for lack of congregations and a shortage of priests. After years of laying off workers, Bethlehem Steel finally closed in 1992. In its place, the health care industry and defense contractors have moved in, bringing with them strangers and high-skill jobs that have edged out some long-time residents.

A surprising number of them are undecided. In an election where the candidates offer strikingly different policies, personalities, and approaches, it's hard to imagine that one could be too badly torn.

Race is often used to explain the high rate of undecideds--and residents admit there is some merit to the claim, although they object to characterizing all or even most people in the area that way.

Paul, the returned Bostoner, described the choice as something harder to put one's finger on than merely the color of a candidate's skin. Instead, she observed, it is a choice between self-sufficiency and collaboration.

In a town that had historically succeeded by digging in, making the most of its natural resources, and relying on family and close-knit communities, the interdependent worldview that Obama represents could be seen as a betrayal. Moreover, embracing a more porous society means creating relationships with a diverse set of people, whose values one may not share. Either way, one has to compromise something--which is worse, allegiance to a defunct past or confidence in an uncertain future?

Until November 4, undecided voters sit paralyzed at the bottom of the valley, able neither to change nor to stay the same.

It is time to make the calls and void the paralysis in Pennsylvania! The Connecticut Call Team has set a goal of at least 10,000 calls in the next seven days. You don't have to be from Connecticut to take part in this.

Follow these important links for CHANGE! We're now in countdown mode.

Last Call For Change http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/makecalls

http://my.barackobama.com/modules/votercontact/login_signup.php
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/cthome

For Connecticut (Fairfield County Residents) we will be hosting an Obama Phone Call "BLITZ" this Saturday, October 25. For more information and sign up, go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gprbxh