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Planet Waves | May 9, 2005

I read today that John Kerry wants us all to get angry about the current situation in America.  Well, gosh, didn't the progressives already do that?  Howard Dean did that very successfully and then coverage of his victory howl branded him zealot and left the field open for John, who, I guess, wasn't all that angry last year. To be fair, he was caught in an "attack/defend" loop that cut the knee's out from under him -- but if John had a bunch of good ideas about how to fix the nation, he kept them to himself. Too bad. Good ideas trump rhetoric any day.

Granted, anger is a terrific motivator. Anger shot-gunned out without foresight creates chaos -- anger turned within ourselves creates depression -- but anger as a catalyst to focused action is a creative force to be reckoned with.  When we use our anger to respond to a stimulus, rather than simply react to one, we are creating a mighty wave of energy that ripples out before us.

The worrisome thing about anger, though, is that it ... like fear ... channels through our adrenal glands.  Most of us have been angry and/or afraid a long time now, and this nation -- most of the world, I'd think -- is suffering adrenal exhaustion. We're weary  ... and we've still got so much to do, so far to go. Interestingly, it's almost like somebody put on a "slow dance," recently ... a little breathing space. Our congress has slowed down, too -- nose to nose and not moving at all. Sometimes slowing down a little is a good thing, a way to notice what's going on in ourselves. 

One of the things I've noticed in the last several weeks is a kind of "energetic opportunity" -- I call it the "Do Over" energy.  I see it happening in the lives of people I know, in the news ... in my life too. We're having opportunity to re-do some situation that didn't turn out as we'd hoped the first time, didn't satisfy us. It may not look just the same as it did in our first encounter, but if we get quiet we can see the similarities. We will find out how much we've learned by how we approach an old pattern -- how to "do it differently" this time. Hopefully, we know ourselves better, now -- maybe we've matured a bit and see where we went wrong the first time -- perhaps now we will respond to our situation, rather than react to it. Look in your life and see if you can find such a situation ... I think you'll find something you're challenged by today has resonance to something that has happened before, some echo from your past. If you find opportunity for a Do Over, realize that you're blessed. 

There are a LOT of things that could use a Do Over, don't you think?

In my perfect world, our anger would be harnessed into thoughtful, productive problem solving. What if we took our anger and allowed it creative expression in new ideas to replace the one's that are running our politicians through hoops today? What if we put our heads together and drew up a dynamite new idea to solve Social Security solvency?  What if we developed and introduced a crackerjack energy plan that would wean us off of fossil fuels without assault to our environment? How about a thoughtful plan for securing our borders that neutralizes racism? The politicians would sneer at all this, you say? So what? A good idea has punch that a failed idea can't hope to compete against. A truly worthy idea captures our imagination and inspires our cooperation.  A great idea can't be denied. If John Kerry had been brimming with great idea's he'd have been able to leap over the "fear tapes" that played us into another four years of George Bush, and land on his feet, running.

A hopeful article I read today [link below] says that the majority of Americans ... Democrat, Republican and Independent ... are tired of the war in Iraq. The Brits have already had their say -- its clear they're tired too. The withdrawal from Vietnam, a knowledgable reporter of the time suggests, came to a close not because of the anti-war demonstrations but because the nation just got tired of war. It takes a lot of juice to do a war -- it takes a lot of juice to protest one -- and Vietnam was a Granddaddy of a war and  a protest movement. At some point, when the weariness sets in, it dawns on the collective that it wasn't such a great idea to start with and it gets worse the longer we think about it.  We start questioning the drum beat and the nationalism and the things the politicians are telling us. Here's the Good News -- the polls suggest that we're coming to that collective point, today.

It's time to take a breath, see where we are, and re-think the situation. If the polls are right, more of our neighbors are with us than we think. We need to turn our energy toward solutions that have some chance of making our world a better place in which to live, come to some determinations about what "safety" and "homeland security" actually look like, brainstorm on how to bring the international community back to the table.  We need to be able to say something more than "We told you so!" when this nation backs up far enough to say, "What next?"  We need to hold our legislators responsible for offering creative solutions instead of dancing endlessly at cross-point to old dilemmas. As always -- write, fax, e-mail, talk and ponder ... the opportunity is upon us to change the direction of the conversation ... the public is hungry to hear it.  So am I.
 
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in," said George McGovern. 

I'm with THAT George -- it's time for a world-wide Do Over -- and we need some fresh new collaborative ideas to replace these old ones, to insure that the old men do just that ... dream, in their rockers ... out on the porch at the ranch.

Peace ~
Jude

Democracy, What Democracy? Troops Out Now.
Laura Flanders
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0508-30.htm

 
Eric Francis is on holiday. Jude, the editor of Political Waves, is standing in for his daily blog this week. You can subscribe to Political Waves (our all-politics news distribution list) for free at the link below. You’ll receive between five and 10 news articles each day. You may write to Jude with your responses to her commentaries at  moderator@planetwaves.net.

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