It was to be expected - the new American coalition has been organizing for over a year now, made up of all sorts of people and groups horrified with Bush's rape and pillage of our country and the world, and determined to bring a new day. We thought the election would be that new day. We were wrong. We nearly pulled it off - in just a year - despite the huge power, machinery, greed, corruption and arrogance dug in against us.

We are on the cusp of pulling it off now - pulling off the grinning mask of morality, family values, integrity, freedom on the march, godliness and security that this cabal of psychopaths wears with such affable hubris. The stark contrasts are sharpening, the hypocrisy becoming yet more monstrous and therefore visible; the center of this empire cannot, will not hold - and we are all still here, still standing, ready to assist it to its inevitable, approaching topple.

This - this post-election, shocked but shaking it off, tired and yet rising because we can sense something happening, moment - is the dawning of the age of America the Soulful, America the Good World Citizen, America the Just. We carry this gene. It's being activated in us now. Can you feel it?

All social justice, peace and pro-democracy groups and organizations, university and college teachers, staff and students, high school students, churches, people who are awake and care - now is the time to drop all ego and turf considerations, show the character and caring that we are all made of, and cooperate and organize into a measured ongoing effort that will aid this seismic shift and lift us all up. We are close.

We can do this, because we're being asked to do this, and we must. And there's plenty for everyone to do, roles of all sorts, gratitude, joy, laughter and satisfaction to go around - there's true community building to be done, which is exactly what the neocons do not want us to do, to accomplish, to be inspired by. And yet doing what we each love to do, what we feel good about doing, is the only way to be inspired and to inspire others. Are you in?

I know that we have choices, power, creativity and unknown forces that we can use and collaborate with to bring us out of this dark night of the soul. It seems we, as a country, need the extremely stark contrasts that we're about to have to understand the reality of the situation and the way out of it. We will be challenged, will rise to the challenge, and become the leaders we require, very quickly.

Some pragmatics: Seems folks are beginning to organize for the day after the attack on Fallujah, which makes sense, because sadly we're not going to stop it now and because it gives us a little more time to prepare. We can start here and continue to meet, talk, organize for continued, continuous pressure to end the war, and to uncover all the thousands, maybe millions, of votes that were trashed, suppressed and shredded and the voters who were intimidated and disenfranchised. The tiniest effort helps, which is all any of us can give at some times - an email alert sent, a letter to the editor written, a small donation given, an organizing meeting attended, an email/postcard/fax/letter sent to Congress/the media/Bush.

Even more important are the efforts we prepare and implement long term to create the world we choose to live in, rather than the one we see on the horizon if we do nothing now.

I'm tired of focusing on Bush. I choose my life back. I suspect that's the best revenge. I know we get to do some very important protesting, rallying, speaking out now about the imminent dangers and outrages that face us, and I'm there. We also get to become more creative and sensitive to what will actually work here, and to what will support, nourish and strengthen us to do our work.

Constantly being angry wears me out - in fact, it's done so. I can't afford to focus on Bush all the time any more; I need to focus on doing what I love, on doing those things that feed me and give me the world I choose to live in. On loving others, helping others, getting the infrastructure in place for when BushCo is gone, because it certainly will be someday. The day could be very close.

I choose to focus on doing progressive, world-creating activities with people I love and with whom I can have fun. Molly Ivins tells us that "ya need to have more fun, y'all - drink more beer", and I'm there too.

We cannot let BushCo have our souls. And soul it is that we must start working through and with. I refuse to be depressed, fearful, pessimistic or fatalistic about this time - though I, like all of us, have my moments where I cry, feel blue and tired and need a hug. We need to cry, feel blue, get hugs, as often we need to - emotions MOVE when you feel them, rather than trying to suppress them (like votes!) or ignore or intellectualize them. They move through us, and then we get back to our center, to who we really are, to the joy and excitement we can feel together, as the Other Great Super Power of the World.

We already are the leaders we've been waiting for. Let's rise and wait no longer.

Dianne Lobes, Ed.D., is a psychologist, activist and writer living in Eugene, Oregon, and working for the Helios Resource Network (www.heliosnetwork.org). She is media director for Lane County WAND and a board member of Beyond War. You can write her at footinthedoor@comcast.net.

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