Some Readers Doubt Conservatives Have Good Ideas for America Some people had difficulty with the blog I wrote on March 2, 2009 about the name calling going on between liberals and conservatives in this country that occurred after  President Obama’s speech to Congress about the fiscal crisis and the country’s future. It appears that I have far more faith in the capacity of all Americans to come up with creative ideas for the country than do many other citizens. Some readers have expressed their doubts to me that Republicans and conservatives lack the ability to come up with any viable ideas for dealing with the financial meltdown or our future. Faith in Conservatives to Serve Comes from Dynamic Facilitation Why do I have such faith in the capacity of conservatives to eventually come up with good ideas that will serve the country, even if we haven’t heard many of these ideas yet? Does it come from my basic stand in like not to make or keep enemies? Perhaps.

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 The Future Starts Now: We Must Create It Together                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Jubilation, Tears and Thanksgiving Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential race on Tuesday night was a time of jubilation, tears and thanksgiving that I will never forget. One of my most indelible teenage memories is of watching civil rights demonstrators being sprayed by fire hoses while my father screamed, “Get those niggers!”  To see this man elected President was the fulfillment of a dream for me and for so many others.                            Tsunami of New Energy Released The eruption of dancing, and joy on the faces of people all over this country and around the world was utterly remarkable. People saw a possible new future for themselves, for their children and future generations.  A wave of energy was released, which some have compared to a tsunami.  It is absolutely vital that this energy is not allowed to dissipate.                                                                                                                Problems too Complex to Leave All Up to Government The problems we face now are far too large and too complex. We cannot leave handling all these problems -from the financial crisis, education, health care, energy, transportation,- to the federal and state governments.  If we leave these policy decisions to Congress the lobbyists will descend on Washington once more and the money machine will start all over again. Then all hope for change will go out the window.

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 Calming The Fearful Mind: A Zen Response to Terrorism.  Thich Nhat Hanh. Parallax Press: Berkeley, CA, 2005. On An Idyllic Fall Day In September Seven years have passed since those haunting days in September 2001 when the airplanes hit the twin towers in NYC and Washington DC. As I sit here on this idyllic summer afternoon, it could even be today, and thousands could be going to their deaths.  In fact, in Afghanistan right now, they are. For terrorism is not over. To read the newspapers  it has barely gotten started.

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Americans today are divided, polarized by political and cultural schisms that are wide, painful and deep. The nature of the issues that divide us are social, cultural, political and religious. In some ways it feels as if we are living in two different countries, depending on where you live and how you describe these schisms and how you vote. The simplest description of this division is to separate the country into the so-called red states and blue states, that is that people in those states vote overwhelmingly Republican or Democratic depending on how they feel about certain cultural or social issues. We can pretty much predict that most people who are pro-choice vote Democratic and most people who are against same sex marriage vote Republican. No surprise there.

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