Beautifully put, Jessi. I'm very proud of you.

Prof Boaz

You're right, we haven't had honor in the white house in a very long time. And young people should be angry, but it's time for your generation to step up.
There is one inspiring candidate that offers real change and I plan to support him. I haven't felt this uplifted since the Kennedy brothers and Dr. King.
It's time to turn the page on the old guard.

I've felt the same way since that day in 9th grade studyhall when there were radio sounds in the hall outside our room.

November 22, 1963. The day America really changed.

That's right. We don't have 'presidents' anymore, but a Board of Directors instead. The President position has been downsized and only a monkey or clown is doing that work at this time.

Jessi, I was 23 when you were born. I offer an apology from a generation that has paid attention to the wrong things but in our defense, much information that is available now, in volume and substance, was simply not available then.

Protect the free flow of information on the internet. Of course it is not all true, but much truth is contained therein and this truth serves both hope and faith.

Don't act in anger. If anger motivates you to seek illumination, then you have converted it to something else. It is that illumination that will carry you (and the rest of the universe) towards a future worthy of the gift of life.

It took me 50 years to learn this-

Heat is energy. Cold is not. Cold is simply the relative absence of heat. One cannot manufacture a machine that produces cold. To make something cold, remove the heat.

Light is energy. Darkness is not. Darkness is simply the relative absence of light. One cannot manufacture a machine that produces darkness. To make something dark, remove the light.

Compassion (love) is energy. Evil is not. Evil is the relative absence of compassion. To make something evil, remove compassion.

The degree to which one lacks compassion is the degree to which one serves evil. This is true regardless of religious beliefs, political alignment or anything else.

Imagine yourself in a giant auditorium with all of the lights turned off. Total darkness. In your hand is a flashlight. A flick of the thumb sends a beam through the darkness. While the flashlights beam is not infinitely powerful, all of the darkness in the universe, if you could bring it into the auditorium, would have no effect on it whatsoever. There is no battle between darkness and light. Darkness is powerless. The battle takes place in the thumb.

To borrow from Joseph Campbell-

"…every failure to cope with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness, Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late."

Truth Faerie
The_truth_faerie@yahoo.com

My memories of occupants of the Oval Office goes back to John F. Kennedy, even though I was born during the Eisenhower administration. I was too young to remember "Ike", but I do remember JFK, having been born into a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent on my mom's side. I attended Catholic school and was in first grade when JFK was assassinated. For me, what truly ripped away my innocence and sense of hope were the assassinations of MLK, Jr. and RFK a few short months apart. 1968 was truly a cataclysmic year for me, being on the precipice of young adulthood as I was. It seemed like the world was shaking itself to pieces that year, and the only saving grace was when Apollo 8 circled the moon and the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis as we viewed Planet Earth from space, a tiny, blue-green ball in the black of space, so fragile, so delicate, so beautiful. And no borders.

Now we face a similar situation. This year, unlike any year since, and 40 years since that cataclysmic year, is a watershed year in Presidential politics. Whoever wins this election will define the direction of our country for generations to come. We are standing at a dangerous precipice, a tipping point. If the wrong person wins, we can almost count on the end of the US as we've known it. If the right person wins, we can step back from the precipice, regroup and move forward with hope that we can repair this nation and the world and once again become the inspiration, the beacon of hope, that we've been to so much of the world for so long now.

Jessi, you do yourself proud by your comments. You are obviously aware, well read and informed. Now, rather than sit idly by and despair for where we've gone and what we've become under disastrous leadership, your time has come to step up to the plate and become involved. Your future is at stake here. You will graduate from college and your generation will take over from mine, the Baby Boomers, who are retiring from their careers, as I will be in a few short years. Will the jobs we are leaving still be there when your time comes? I hope so. No guarantees, of course, but I hope that your generation will have secure jobs, health care and retirement when your time comes.

We can finally have an American President as you describe one. I am supporting a candidate who will be an American President on Day One. A President who brings hope and inspiration to all who hear him speak. A President who we can be proud of, who will end the bitter partisan politics that are ripping apart our government and preventing real solutions to real problems from getting accomplished. A President who will not be afraid to talk to our enemies as well as our friends. A President who can motivate us all to get back into becoming involved in our country again, who isn't afraid to ask us to help out as well and lend our voices to solutions to difficult problems that plague our country.

I hope that you're willing to do the same. And thank you for lending your voice to this forum. It is highly valued, and as a Baby Boomer who thought that your generation just flat out didn't care like ours did, your voice encourages me that I'm wrong about that. You do care. And thank you for that.

The presidential "problem" has been going on for longer than 23 years. And, it also seems to me that they have been all "too American" with their foibles , etc.

I pray that the next president is 1.) the Democratic Party nominee and 2.) all of the things that so so many people believe that they see in Barak Obama. They sure were wrong in what they thought about the creature residing in the White House now.

What was it that that idiot said... "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can't fool me again."

We shall see.

You're a very wise person, Jessi, and it seems like you were born with most of what you have now.

You're right, the offices of the president and vice president have been NULLIFIED. They do not exist anymore -- particularly with this coup (aka The bush Administration).

I believe it's what someone wise said several years ago. He said the US has outgrown the presidency. We have become too large and too vast for that kind of government, and it was time we moved to having more of a Governing Council. I do not see the office of the presidency ever recovering to what it was intended to be. I think those days are well over. We won't recover until we realize that and put a governing council as our government so no one person will ever EVER hold all the reigns again. We saw all too well the corruption and disaster that brings.

Jessi___ It is good to see that young people like yourself are rightly concerned about the sad condition our nation is now in. Do not give up hope, but realize we all have a stake in making it possible for our country to survive and eventually return to what it should be again.

I hope most people have now realized that when voting for our leaders, be very careful of anyone that has not had to learn their own lessons, has an arrogant attitude, and does not have a good grasp of the English language.

Jessi- your sentiments mirror my own, but I envy your sense of hope and renewal. I personally do not see that there will be any real change in the coming years whatsoever, save for matters becoming far more brutal and desperate. It has been made clear to us all that the "elections" no longer matter, you may as well stay home. The puppet will do its job without you.
I too have grown up without seeing one shred of integrity in my leaders, and I have no expectation of seeing it at all. I wish you luck on your way into the darkness that swallows this nation.

We learn about our country's historical figures when we're very young, idealistic and have no idea how adults, including presidents, live and interact with the world. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, & Roosevelt were never real people. They came from the same place that Superman, Batman and all the rest of the super heroes came from. They were bigger than life. They were the smartest, the toughest and the best men that ever lived.

Then we grow up. We learn that even the greatest of men have flaws. We accept it and learn to admire them even more; knowing they were able to accomplish great things despite being mere mortal men.

We grow wiser and expect such men as the President of the United States not to exceed our unattainable expectations. However, we do learn that they are not only smart, but cunning at marketing themselves and their achievements. Us mortal men envy the power they possess to demand recognition of their masterful skills of intellect and language to attract millions toward them.

Years go by. Presidents come and go. You no longer get excited over the grandiose speeches and hype you've heard over and over and......You understand that presidents are marketed for consumer use. Your expectations fall even further.

You dream of great men you heard of back in grade school. The corruption, money and political bickering is enough to make you puke. Then when your perception of presidential men can't get any worse......George W. Bush ("the master of low expectations")comes in to utterly destroy any hope you might have had in seeing this country electing a truly honorable, strong and able president.

Hold on to your hope. If there's one thing that can be said of the man who is occupying the presidential office today is that: it can only seem to get better. The bar has been lowered so low that Herbert Hoover looks like Superman, Einstein and Jesus rolled in to one.

"I am angry and I am ready for a change."

Eegad, another Obamaniac.

Jessi, I believe Truthseeker58 is correct--this country has outgrown the presidency. There is too much power in the hands of one person. We would be better served by a Governing Council at the top of the Executive Branch of government. I am not very educated in politics or government, and I have not seen this mentioned before--but this idea occurred to me also several months ago. Maybe it is an idea whose time has come. And maybe YOU are an idea whose time has come. I believe in the old Hopi saying that was recently used as a title of a book by Alice Walker and more recently as a topic in an Obama speech: "We are the ones we have been waiting for."
Listen to your heart, Jessi. Is there a role for you to play in the unfolding of the future of this once great country?

"When I was young, my elementary school held a student presidential vote. I was so excited to be participating even though I knew it wasn't real. "

It was probably just as real as the last few DIEBOLD elections, kiddo....did your teacher get to count the votes in private?

You have to view the upper levels of our Federal Government (the Senate, the Presidency, the leadership in the House, the Federal Reserve and to some degree, but more servant to really, the Supreme Court) for what it is - an Oligarchy. It's the natural result of the maturation of our form of Republic/Democracy. It won't be reversed by any election or political party but the Oligarchy will not last and we'll slide towards a brief period fascism or a kind of everyman for himself barely controlled chaos, followed by another violent revolution that will lead to god only knows what. The slide to a complete Oligarchy was completed years ago. What we've been seeing for the last 25 years or so is an attempt by the now failing Oligarchy to maintain the myth of a functioning Republic. But predictably, the Oligarchy has begun to believe its own myths. So you have this state of disconnect from reality that bewilders your average and at the moment powerless citizen or journalist. But the Oligarchy wants what it wants so it can't resist its own worst tendencies so the disconnect from reality grows steeper and the acts become more and more overt and crazy (crazy to one who isn't party to the morality destroying wealth of the Oligarchy that is). Finally, desperation sets in as the Oligarchy itself begins to feel the results of it's own failed policies and years of neglecting good governance. Then, the Oligarchy unconsciously switches from trying to maintain the myth of a functioning Republic via some level of self-control and some policy consideration for the masses to trying to pacify the masses with circus and beer (another rebate check anyone?). But this act of desperation only buys the Oligarchy more time. But time for what? It has no ability for "change" as it is not a functioning governing body with the tools for introspection and discipline (not a coincidence that this word "change" is being thrown around this election year in such vague terms). Finally, the last chapter is written when a number of the Oligarchy's failed "policies" come home to roost at the same time, destroying the Nations economy or worse. This destiny for all democratically organized governments is spelled out by Plato in "The Republic" and it's the reason why we all know that name thousands of years later even if we don't all know or understand his work. It's the reason the founding fathers drafted the Constitution to be a living, changing document. If you were diligent and careful you could constantly update and re-invent Democracy so that the "decline" was never allowed to begin. But we have not been diligent and careful with it, consumerism and fossil fuels drove us all to distraction. The end.

Sorry, what's the point here? The entire last paragraph works for basically any kid in any country on Earth ...and most of them much more so than those of us here in the states. When I read this coming from another young American like myself, it feels typical. Just typical. Pseudo-introspection and a list of cliches, but not a shred of perspective. Is my generation damned to be as self-absorbed as the last?

Still waiting for Commondreams to post something on Kosovo. Lot more to talk about (and learn about) in that than we're going to get from the young people in America.

Why do we need good leaders? Are we little children? Let's start with ourselves. We need to lead ourselves. Each as an individual. Instead of wasting our energy seeking some ficticious sense of legitimacy from any number of institutions.

Dear Jessi,

This was a wonderful article with lots of passion. But, your confusion can be easily cured. You must realize, as I did, we have never lived in a democracy. America has always been a hypocrisy. Since you're a woman, I don't have to explain what this means. America has always been a tyranny. All you have to do is list our current events over the last 30 years. They are full of accounts of industrail strength mass murder of people who did nothing to us. The key to our problem is simple: We must reconcile the American Dream with the American Reality. To date, they are not one and the same. If America is to survive, good citizens such as yourself, must take up the cause of making America better by reconciling our myth with the truth. If you commit yourself to this cause, perhaps the America of our dreams may one day come true.

Franklin L. Johnson
http://weareseers.blogspot.com
starhelix@aol.com

We are ,for most of us,Socialist,liberals in our youth,wanting to set the world right.Unfortunately,the real workaday world creates creeping change in our thinking,evolving gradually into pragmatic,bill paying,fear of losing jobs,semi-capitalists,who cheer these thoughts of yours from the sidelines.
I complement you Jessi on a great essay and am sorry to attach my sceptical and increasingly cynical comments; comments I encourage you to ignore as you get older.All the best.

Stilba - the difference is, kids in other countries aren't brainwashed from day 1 that it's their nation's manifest destiny to bring democracy and all that is good and Christian to the unwashed savages that constitute the rest of the world. Now to be honest, younger kids nowadays ARE in fact learning more of the actual history of the US instead of the mythologized tripe the older generations were fed. So we've got that going for us!

The system for selecting politicians with the lobbyists, contributions, and corporate power makes it nearly impossible to get a decent president. It is as if we look in the whorehouse maternity ward for a virgin.

But I am religious so I wait for that miracle to happen.

Jessie,

I was 23 once, 34 years ago. I watched as the passion and hope of the sixties evaporated into the hopelessness of the seventies and the BIG LIE of the eighties. I know your anger. It is an energy that can and must be harnessed. Let the old politics of privilege and power end with the election of President Obama. We the people can make this happen with our $25, and $50 donations. If you're tired of the Insurance companies, banks and oil companies; argi-businesses, wall street tycoons and the ultra rich running this country for their own benefit - give what you can, do what you can but most of all say who you are. Talk about this movement at church, at work, in your neighborhood. Put your reputation on the line. Stand up and be counted. We can retake this nation for the people and make it an agent of change in the world. We can fix the environment. We can fix the income disparity that institutionalizes hopelessness. We can stop the Iraq war and prevent others from beginning. We can provide medical care for all our citizens. We can educate all our children to the same standard regardless of whether they live in ghettos or suburbs. We can reform our prison and a legal system that seeks to warehouse the underprivileged in conditions unsuited to animals. Yes we can, yes we can.

We will win if we think we can. Put an Obama sticker on your car, a sign in your yard. Speak loudly and often in public. Don't let the politics of fear silence our freedom to speak. We shall now have hope. We need you. We need the millions like you. With hope, we can and will turn this anger that's trapping us into a power that can change this county and the world. We will prevail not by the use of the tactics of force, fear and redemptive violence that has imprisoned us for five thousand years under the domination systems of empire, but with the love and compassion that is hardwired into the very soul of every person on the planet. Yes we can. Yes we can.

David Southworth

Absolutely. Teachers get an F. They are amongst the most responsible for the actions of the US. My teachers let me down horribly and I will never forgive them. Teachers are the base on which rests the American war mentality. They have failed miserably and deserve little respect.

Remember the youthful enthuisasm during Bill's first run? He said all the right things, avoided the war (Vietnam) and was so cool , he didn't inhale. It was the same parade of enthusiasm, If he had morphed into a old warlock and shrieked that he was nibbling away at your quality of life then you wouldn't feel lied to. You'd know you were cheated and robbed.

Dear Jesi,
The America of the civics class never existed. The Somerset ruling of 1772 by Lord Chief Justice Manfield banned the practice of slavery in England and set the slave-holding colonies of America on the path to independence. This became the only path available for all the colonies when they were joined by Massachusetts in 1776 under the yoke of martial law. Our Constitution was drawn up by gentlemen in a committee appointed under the Articles of Confederation to improve the efficiency of the Articles – not to draw up a new constitution. They spent months haranging over the details and the language which was very much intent on protecting property, that is slaves, from federal and interstate interference. Our first president was, not conincidentally, our first millionaire whose land empire (half of West Virginia) was illegally obtained from the soldiers serving under him in the French Indian War. It was to service the costs of that war that the British crown had raised taxes on the colonists. As president, Washington needed revenues and passed our first sin tax – against whiskey. Many refused to pay and committed themselves to the Whiskey Rebellion, which Washington put down with federal soldiers. Since Washington himself owned the largest distillery in America, however, the tax was in fact a blow against his competitors who were forced to submit.
While low cost land to the west was available at public expense when it was made available from the subjugated natives, America could pose as the great hope for Western civilization. When that land became occupied, however, our westering did not cease and the nations of the Pacific and Carribean learned what the Amerind people had already suffered in isolation from the oversight of world opinion. Creating private wealth at public expense had become the American way, a method still being compelled step-by-step upon the rest of the world.
The fact is the words that represent the ideals of America have been consistently belied by the behavior of its leaders with few exceptions.

Dear Shakker,
We cannot expect miracles that we cannot bring about ourselves.

Jessi, I love you? (;

I just want to reassure everyone who is concerned that Jessi's frustration will decay into apathy that you need not worry. The impetus behind her writing this essay was a visit to my office where she wanted to talk through ways that she could become engaged; how she could find an "entry point" (to use the language of Frances Moore Lappe) and channel her frustration into something constructive. Amongst other endeavors that she is now pursuing, I encouraged her to use her writing talent to put some of her thoughts to paper and then to share them. She produced this essay less than 5 hours later. She's far from disengaged.

Cynthia Boaz

Any adult who was shocked over what happened on 9/11 was asleep. Congratulations to you for waking up.

When I was young, I was told that presidents are honorable men. They are wise, they are strong, and they are able.

Don't worry. We're now devising K-12 civics curricula that will include taking the kids on field trips to the local city council meetings and corporate board meetings and have the kids terrorize the bureaucrats and instill a healthy fear of the rabble in them. We'll bus the kids to the state and federal capitols and unleash them there too.

Jessi, this is a beautiful article. But from afar, i.e. Europe, one gets the feeling that the office of the American President has become too much for one person. It's like America is looking for a saviour every 4 years, and I find this unhealthy.

If America opted for a parliamentary democracy instead (which is what most modern democracies have, America being an anomaly since it's still got this 18th century relic of an elected monarch and hasn't as the only(!!) country on earth changed its system for over 200 years!), the search for the perfect person wouldn't be so grueling, the disappointment not so great, and some decent people who don't own millions or have to collect them would be able to govern.

It is also an anomaly for any modern democracy to have so many millionaires govern a country, FYI.

Your old-fashioned 18th century idea of a democracy is absolutely nobody's envy any more around the world, by the way - unless you live in a dictaturship, then everything is better, of course - , it is amazing that Americans still think it is.

Araquin, Many, if not most of us Americans are only one or two generations from an immigrant who chose to come here because they believed in the America of Jessi's childhood...and we still see immigrants flocking to our shores...thereby perpetuating our delusion...I think this is why we "still think America is the envy of the world"...We don't hear about immigrants flocking to the shores/borders of other countries...so we don't realize that this is happening all around the developed world...It's not about political system...it's about economic opportunity...when I was in the Peace Corps 20 years ago, it seemed like everyone I met in Thailand wanted to come to the US...so they could have a washing machine. I was shocked by this. Americans don't seem to understand this...Much has changed since then...but I think the fundamental reason for immigration is the same...Americans just don't realize it (in general..they think it's still all about "our freedoms" and Jessi's America)

Amidst the mass-masturbation atmosphere in these comments, I'd like to make a stand against the Norman Rockwell-ization of our shared nightmare.

Letter from Another Young American
By Stilba, Age 20-something, BS in Democracy as Disappointment

For this young American, whenever it looks like everybody agrees completely, I get skeptical. More generally, my brain tends to drift off into the fantasy. I don't need video games ...I simply float out into the cosmos, detached, unaware, sullen-faced but sparkling on the inside. To hell with democracy, give me that Extra Value Empire, to go!

As in the above essay, I recall in my schooldays the campaign between Clinton and old what's-his-name. Mainly I recall my apathy and ignorance, and that I wanted to vote for a guy on some transcendentalist ticket (my guy got less than .001%, nationwide). School was not a place for something like dreams, or democracy, you see. It was an animal place, a dark and frightening world of egg-shells and brutes. The state of my nation was the LAST thing on my mind. Sure, I heard about some ugly, insulting lie called democracy, but I knew better even as a tike. No such thing in my time, no matter how many pledges of allegiance they made me do. Sell it for a penny, or drop what's left of it into the abyss, for all I cared.

And so I took off for Europe, fairly sure I wouldn't be back. That's where I got bitter. Venomous, really. I'd become scantily educated (starting AFTER high school) while living among those who hate us dearly. I came to appreciate and understand the kind of hate that becomes bile because you can't do anything about it. But somehow I had no trouble jivving that with my own Yankee being, skipping around as a tricolor dandy through Freddy Krueger's playground. As said, my head was flying as the eagle soars ...even atop that putrid republican song. But the bile mixed me up, and I became an American cocktail, one finger self-obsessed, one finger terrified beast, two fingers John Rambo (despite my being a non-vet and something of a pacifist/vegetarian ...generally).

The cocktail was noxious. I can still taste it. I remember one night not so long ago, after coming back to the states, when I screamed and howled at some college republican jackass. He was pale ...the lot of them were. They must have sensed the atavism, that ancient, lizard thing in me ready to make a long-overdue comeback. Their smug goddamned smirks had dried right up. Alas, there were no large femurs scattered in the grass, so we all went on in our different directions ...none wounded, all shaken. Even Nader might have said "Whoa, boy!" And that's who I voted for next, purely out of spite toward the Democrats for being such enabling wimps.

As for Bush II, I shrug. We love sequals, even though they're always worse the second time. The market sorts it out. A leader's a product, after all, right? I don't blame a dry-drunk fratboy like I blame the Democrats for ...pretty much everything.

Enabling is a big part of my disturbance. Oh, I am disturbed, political-wise. Any young Yank who isn't. I can't say I don't blame them for tuning out. But to whine about our grisly leaders, to even think of them, is the worst. It is enabling. It is to conscript oneself into that game of egos, no less in spirit than what a physical conscript was to a king in his divine right not so long ago. Come to think of it, the tyrannical comparison is literal. But to whine legitimizes everything they do. It lays down the carpet for the next political hyaena to come along, promising everything but saying only (if you know how to hear them) "I want to be president!"

Who the hell would want to be that? Only a loony ...or a beast. And as for wondering where the future went, rest assured that there is no long-term future, courtesy of climate change (if not some other horror). The trick is to make absence, nothingness, finiteness, a fuel source. Young men and women would do best by adapting to extreme absurdities, contradictions, and our involuntary participation that is certainly on the order of the villagers in Nazi Germany who knew about the stink ...but had to play along in order to put food on the table for their own children. Do you want food on your table? Transportation? A job? Distractions of all kinds? Then you are part of the problem. Yes, you are. Your smug resists, my fellow young Yankee, but you know it to be true. Swallow that, smirk over it, and rage against yourself for being such a ghoul. Or, tune out, hit the beach, and watch the sun set. The most American of young Americans, not wanting limits, will probably do a bit of both. Another noxious cocktail.

Ah, change, that *magick* word. Delerious and giddy in light of huge dead zones in the oceans, and the end of Santa's home at the North Pole. My friends, as John McCain usually starts off, the only change that's coming is what you find in the gutter, covered in slime, minimal in value. Put it in your pocket, that one with the hole in it. Ooops, I have lost it. I am a young person in America.

Jessi - This is a great article and reminds me of my own similar realizations of the world that was presented to me in school and media.

I too bought the story sold to me and didn't see any other way, or when I did, was kept distracted by things like the latest new TV show from thinking about it too much. My full on moment of realization hit me like a ton of bricks when I was traveling in Vietnam in 1999. After three weeks of seeing the country and the amazing people, I had a weird feeling deep down that I couldn't pin down. Then I visited the war museum in Saigon, suddenly I saw pictures and stories that I had never seen before. I was seeing the complete opposite point of view of a war and a country I had thought I knew. Then there was a picture of a young American boy sitting amongst rows of white crosses, dressed in an army uniform too big for him, draped in an American flag, M16 at his side, calm and innocent expression on his face. Below was this poem,

"When I was a Child
I spoke of a child
I understood as a child
I though as a child
But when I became a man
I put away childish things."

The movies of my teens were Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, which almost made Vietnam a mythical place in my young naïve, testosterone fueled mind. I almost believed that our generation was missing something in not being able to experience what our soldiers went through. Suddenly, being there in that museum in front of that picture of innocence I realized the absurdity of war. Instead of thinking machine guns and Huey helicopters and fighter jets were sexy and cool, I saw them for what they really were, killing machines. I lost my innocence that day. The rest of my trip through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were just as eye opening and shattered my world view and changed the way I live my life.

I'm grateful to see people so young looking into their hearts to find the truth. It gives me hope to see our future youth not swallowing the corporate media version of truth without question. It can be hard, to avoid the sexy, violent and scary distractions that are offered there.

For me, I decided that if I could live and thrive in my own local economy, support diversity and spend my money as close to the source of products as possible (ensuring the bulk of my dollars go to who deserves it and who has an interest in what they are selling)…buy/trade food, clothes and shelter locally…imitate natural systems…stop living in fear…it would be a start to making the whole 'system' and it's story sort of irrelevant… From my experience this is the most effective means of change I have found.

As cliché as it can sound these days, "Be the Change you want to see in the world". Gandhi knew what he was talking about, and spoke of these things back in the early 1900's. I think putting too much faith for change in politicians or anyone other than ourselves is very valuable or realistic.

My advice is to live within your means …stay out of debt…grow your own food (even it it's just basil in a pot on a balcony or spouts on a window sill)…support local artisans and food growers…choose slow food…study permaculture and slow food movements …diversify and decentralize…live without fear. The more we can spend the money and in turn our energies towards the systems whose methods and goals we can live with in our hearts the more the world will change from the bottom up.

I also firmly believe a great positive feedback loop can be created with the youthful enthusiasm and energy of the younger generation energizing the sometimes lethargic wisdom that can come with age. This community on CD could use more of this refreshing kind of thought. As I find if I get too focused on the crap that's going on, I can get too distracted and depressed to be doing what I need to do.

This young writer needs therapy, and lots of it.

Dear Cynthia Boaz,
My thanks to you, for directing Jessi to a forum where I have the opportunity to read her thoughts. I hope she continues to look for her voice, and to exercise it often. I hope that I can read more of her thoghts in the future. And I also hope that Jesse does not become as jaded and cynical as many of us in these blogs. I suspect that when we do, two tragic events occur: we become part of the very problems we deplore-- and then, when things go wrong in the world, we get what we deserve.

Dear Jessie,

The baby-boomer generation experienced a not unprecedented set of circumstances on an unprecedented scale. Born to parents having lived through the first major 'depression'- of a highly centralized economic engine and the attendent perspectives on war economics; the implanting of an equally highly centralized communications industry; the implementation of increasing 'holidays' such as Columbus Day -still deserving of examination; clandestine foreign military, economic and political intervention in the lives of peoples of other sovereign states; a governmental pattern of systematically demonizing nearly all economic and social models that are/were not itself; massive marketing of unnecessary material goods backed by a multi-billion dollar industry for the purpose of developing 'brand loyalty' consumerism; the 'green revolution' (not today's green movement) and massive agribusiness; the peace movement in the sixties; the continuance of treaty abrogation and dehumanization of indigenous peoples; the building of the civil rights movement; the popular, practical and scholarly introduction of eastern religions; the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls; the growing awareness of non-violent movements all over the world since the likes of Lisistrata, Buddha and Jesus Christ. All of this this occurred within the perspective of essentially believing that resources were unlimited - and it is an incomplete list. There have been millions of unnamed, unknown human beings doing millions of unnamed, unknown wonderful things.

Many people of the baby boomer generation have been attempting in many ways to open eyes to the history that has been denied people here. A wise person once said that the most difficult people in our lives are our most valuable teachers.

Sometimes exile from one's heartland though painful, can mature us. May you always attend to knowing your heartland and nurture it regularly, cultivate discipline, introspection and appreciate simplicity.

Some things imposed:
- everything needs to be 'dumbed down' - balderdash - that is shorthand for not taking time for study or conversations that need to occur.
- current conditions and perspectives are the permanent furniture of the universe - balderdash - the only thing that doesn't change is change. You will see things in your life that I and others of my generation cannot even imagine.

Structures that exist are necessary but many are currently suffering from intense denied fear, greed and delusion (Latin: delusio- to mislead, play to mislead). They will always be a work in progress. As it becomes increasingly apparent that the paradigm of 'unlimited everything' is a delusion, new perspectives will arise with new clarity. Its the journey of life and sharing the tools and celebration of it that makes life rich. I think it was FDR who said there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Much is said about 'pride' these day, little about 'dignity'. I tend to think that the former is self-oriented, the latter embracing functional integrity (and thus healthier).

There is an old Sufi aphorism: 'All the world's religions point to God, and too many people end up worshipping the finger'.

Other social, economic and technological models DO exist. Your generation will be connecting the highest with the lowest in every way. Consider becomming familiar with an agraphic (non-writing) traditional culture. We are trained to think that if one does not write, one is by definition backward. This is patently untrue as a generalization. It can be and is in some cases a vibrant, vital other way of knowing and being.

Find out what is invisible to us. That might sound odd - but each generation does it because who we are and how we are is first and foremost an idea - a perspective.

DREAM!

Health, vitality, simplicity and joy!

I went through a period of questioning. That is what I would call it. Which grew from, not jaded cynicism, but a desire to stop being deluded about the causes and consequences of suffering in the world.

And through reassessment of the U.S., its history and its situation in the world, I came to the realization that my country's government has being responsible for the destruction of many, many people's lives. Unwarranted destruction. For reasons of self-interest, rather than self-defense.

It is better to be unhappy but know the truth, at least then you have half a chance at being part of a solution. This nation has made a virtue out of being deluded about itself and it's own history.

Jessi- you try landing a damaged C-130 (spy plane) on a unfamiliar runway see how far you get. Those guys were rammed by a Chinese fighter.

A change. Well that change will be a burka around your head, if the current crop of Libs get in.

By the way your inspiring Senator from the state of ILL. Lied last night about the Army Captain and the lack of supplies. (CNN report) A democrat that lies that is normal in my book

Um, Jonthenet, Jessi says nothing about any current presidential candidates, Democratic or otherwise. You are reading into her essay.

And technically a burqa (you spelled it wrong) goes over the head, not around it.

p.s. Jonthenet, where is this alleged CNN report? I can't find it anywhere. Link please.

To Jessi ... um ...I think you got an A. lol

To Cynthia... B+.

Essay question # 2... The role of the media as advocate and defender of our democracy or it's failure to be either.

Jess, you inspire old fogeys to hope... in our hope for your generation and following generations that it is all not too late... we hope!

However Jess your dismay at our leadership (such as it is/isn't) leaves out who really leads us... um... misleads us. Those who lead us astray... are our media.

America once depended on our media to be the sticklers who would stick it to the corrupt, the vain, the arrogant and the deceitful. Now it spins excuses for them instead and we become (as a democracy) undone.

Bush's real base and the true enablers of all this mess... has been our media. If you look back at the coverage of events, you see that all along, we have been handed so much spin that finding the consensus of truth seems impossible.

Once the press would nail a wrong not just mention it in passing or describe it as if it were a maybe... and then move on. There is why you are frustrated and why we (old fogeys... are cynical) despair. The game is rigged so that in America you must search out the truth or facts or analysis that you can trust... we can no longer just pick up any paper and be informed. We pick up any paper and end up reading spin now.

That the way it has become Jessi... we falter in our democracy because our collective understanding (derived from our media) fails us.

So kid ( I mean Cynthia... lol...us old fogeys know how to be kind) tell this real smart and wonderful young person to look at those who have let this all get this bad for so long... and failed to warn us or defend our democracy... our spin repeating uncritical Press.

I'd like to hear what Jessi has to say.

Essay # 2.

Go get em Jessi... you'd better... yeah you really should! Our media consolidated owned press is no longer a free press. Our media is in fact ... no really ours.

There's the rub.

Correction >>> is not really ours

sigh...lol ...not really ours.

know any good proof readers Jess? lol

All the best... Jess.

B+? Um, no.

As for your suggestion, done.

Jessi,
For me, as perhaps many, the world really changed Nov. 22, 1968. Till then I had believed that Humanity was at last pulling themselves away from the ooze that had been dragging it back forever. Since that day the ooze has been on the march climbing up after us.

I had a part time job then as a clerk in a bait shop, getting minimum wage, that would have bought 6 gallons of gas per hour, or for two thousand hours of work, a Volvo.

You could make candles or jewelry (or whatever) on your kitchen table, and make a decent living just for the effort, and sell faster and for more than a mass produced product.(who among your friends would even wear six or more nice silver or gold rings or even dare to)

Full time servants were almost unknown because nobody made wages enough to pay for several others, though most wives did not work outside the home, and did not need to.

The highest wage in the country was $800k, famous because it was almost twice the second highest (and started a trend)

This world will not return in your lifetime. For a thousand years the old envied the young, because they would live to see such better days. I do not envy you, because the ooze found a constituency, and climbed back up after us, up to our eyeballs. I can only hope that you will be able to fight hard enough against it that your children do not envy you also.

Thank you cythnia, Burka is the American style of spelling if they are going to force it on us, by God I'm spelling it my way. Wearing it around or ontop, doesn't matter covering up beautiful Arab women is a crime.

Wolf Blitzer report around the 5:30 pm central time zone. The reaction to the dem debate.

When I was in 6th grade, we had mock debates. I played the part of George McGovern. A friend and classmate was Richard Nixon. He won our debate, and Richard Nixon won the national election. Since then I've been hoping for a president that I supported who would finally win. I was too young to vote for Carter the first time. The 2nd time, my first election, he lost, Reagan won. I was devastated. My candidates continued to lose. I was out of the country when Clinton won, so I didn't vote, but I remember watching him celebrate on TV. Then there was impeachment. Again, my dreams were shattered. And then 7 years of a disaster in Washington, with disastrous effects on this country and on the world. Perhaps now we are ready for the big changes that former generations have seen and which I have dreamed about. If a McCain or Huckabee somehow wins this next election, I'm going to consider finding another country, since it would appear I was born in the wrong place.

Thank you, Jessi, for an extraordinary piece of writing. You made your points incisively; you write extremely well, and I agree with you. Please continue to write - the subject matter may be painful, as this is, but a skill such as yours should continue to be exercised; it is of great value to those of us who appreciate beautiful writing and the truth-telling you include in yours.

A bit of trivia: McCain will be 80 yrs at the end of his second term-same age as Castro now.The Iraq occupation will have lasted 14 years.Not a lot of "change" to celebrate.Defense expenditures will be in the $ 3/4 trillion range.

Stilba,
A suggestion: Don't give up during this particular lifetime of yours. It is obvious that you care. Spend some real time in one or more villages in West Africa (Cameroons, Togo, Mali), mountains of Nepal, Northern Laos, Bali (where no tourists), among the Igorot people in Northern Luzon (Phil.), and/or among Indian tribes in parts of Mexico or Central America.
Look for stillness in the eyes and smiles from the heart. Listen for sweetness in the voice and laughter from the soul.
Learn to trust who they are -- and then learn to trust in in your Self.
Then, write the poetry from the talent-with-words that you so obviously have.

Jessi,
Here are several quotes from India:

"There is one school -- the world.
There is one teacher -- God.
There is one book -- life."

"Everyone has their own lock and their own key."

And,

"Make yourself into a flute through
which God can play His music."

Find what works for you -- grow -- and work with others who also wish to make our world a more harmonious place in which to live.

Last quote: "The highest spiritual practise is to transform love into service."

God Bless