“Corporate profits up, but consumer optimism sagging.”

The conclusion of this headline doesn’t bother me as much as the principles named. Sometimes a different word choice can generate an entirely new meaning.

This rewrite is an upgrade: “Corporate profits up, but citizen optimism sagging.” Eventually, the headline would transform into a world changer, “Corporate profits down, but citizen optimism rising.”

Why am I making such a big deal of semantics? How could this possibly be a spiritual issue?

Universally, the great religions teach us that the mind is ground zero for eternal values to reign on the earth. Our identity is fundamental.

The ancient letter to Christian’s in Rome exhorts, Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed.”

Fast forward two thousand years. Standing at America’s ground zero, our would-be-Emperor beseeched us to “go shopping.”

I’m asking you to do two things. Numero uno. Sharpen your eyes and ears to the noun the corporate media uses to reference you. Numero dos. Every time you are referred to as a consumer (which is virtually every time) say resolutely to yourself, “Citizen.”

The consequence of seeing human beings as consumers bores down not only to the marrow of our identity, but also of our literal existence.

On July 29th The United Nations General Assembly declared for the first time that access to clean water and sanitation is a fundamental human right. In a historic vote, 122 countries supported the resolution, and over forty countries abstained from voting, including the United States, Canada and several European industrialized countries.

When asked about the nations that abstained, longtime water justice activist Maude Barlow, stated it is the “neo liberal countries who have bought into this whole agenda that everything is to be commodified.” When everything is commodified, people become commodities as well.

Bolivia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Pablo Solon, introduced the resolution at the General Assembly. He told of the long struggle for water rights in Bolivia, which successfully fought against Bechtel’s water privatization efforts ten years ago, then went on to say:

“At the global level, approximately one out of every eight people do not have drinking water. In just one day, more than 200 million hours of the time used by women is spent collecting and transporting water for their homes.

The lack of sanitation is even worse, because it affects 2.6 billion people, which represents 40 percent of the global population. According to the report of the World Health Organization and of UNICEF of 2009, which is titled “Diarrhea: Why Children Are [Still] Dying and What We Can Do.” Every day 24,000 children die in developing countries due to causes that can be prevented, such as diarrhea, which is caused by contaminated water. This means that a child dies every three-and-a-half seconds. One, two, three. As they say in my village, the time is now.”

The Buddha taught,

“I mean, to end a career like McChrystal’s? I mean, Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has.”

The opening statement is from Geraldo Rivera on FOX. The second quote is from Lara Logan, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News. Both were commenting on Michael Hastings Rolling Stone piece “The Runaway General.” The summary line for the article is “Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House.”

FYI, Geraldo and Lara. Hastings has been reporting in Iraq and Afghanistan for five years now, and his fiance was killed in Iraq. It appears he knows a smidgen about sacrificing for his calling and country. Does your service to America exceed your self righteousness?

This week Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan defended herself in tense questioning from the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Jeff Sessions.

“I tried to make clear in everything I did, how much I honored everybody who was associated with the military on the Harvard Law School campus… I meant to protect the gay and lesbian students who might very much want to serve in the military, who might very much want to do that most honorable kind of service that a person can do for her country…I talked about how important military service was, because our veterans organizations and veterans on campus did an absolutely terrific job, a terrific service to their fellow students in talking to them about the honor of military service.”

Lemme see if I got this straight. Being true to your calling as an independent media reporter is to be “a rat in an eagle’s nest,” and one taking the fourth estate seroiusly has “never served his country” the way a military general has. And, to be a qualified Supreme Court Justice you have to bow before the Imperial Altar of the United States Armed Forces, extolling military service as “that most honorable kind of service that a person can do for her country.”

This is what we have come to? During the July 4th celebrations peak your attention. Patriotism will almost exclusively=Military Might. You will see flags coupled with soldiers, arms and awesome aerial displays. Please contact me if you see the flag wed to social workers, teachers, nurses, or peace activists.

I want to be crystal clear. I favor the constitutional role of the military to “provide for the common defense.” One is hard put to make a case for any of our “conflicts” from Korea through our current quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan as meeting this standard.

Do we really need 737 military bases with more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet? Can we take pride in being the world’s largest arms supplier amassing 41% of total worldwide sales?

I am not anti military. I do patriotically resist America’s imperial armed forces. I do abhor selling 5 times more weapons of destruction than the next 5 nations combined.

Way back in 1848 Rev.Theodore Parker preached a sermon, “The Political Destination Of America And The Signs Of The Times.” He spoke.

“There is a lamentable want of first principles, well known and established, the authority of truth and justice.”

His prophetic word builds to a crescendo.

“An American State must also be a state of free men who give over brawling, resting on industry, justice, love, not on war, cunning and violence – a State where liberty, equality, and fraternity are deeds as well as words…and the American church tuning all to harmony of freedom for the mind, freedom for the heart, freedom for the soul.”

In his “Sermon of War” he thunders.

“We reverence force. Abroad we are looked on as a nation of swindlers and men-stealers! Alas! The nation is a traitor to its great idea – that all men are born equal, each with the same unalienable rights.

The voice of conscience speaks to you and me, the right will prosper, the wicked States shall die. History responds with her long amen.”

Let patriots who have ears to hear, let them hear.

From time to time I hear about people like Manute Bol who have possessed large sums of money and spend it not on personal comforts but on a greater good. I wonder if I would have the spiritual courage to do the same.

Manute was spotted playing basketball by an American college coach in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. He was hard to miss standing a skeletal 7 feet, 7 inches tall.

Manute moved to the U.S. attending High School at Case Western in Cleveland, and college at the University of Bridgeport. Bol was drafted by the San Diego Clippers in 1983 playing 10 seasons in the NBA. He is the only NBA player to average more blocked shots per game than points, ranking second all-time with 3.34.

Manute Bol died of a rare, painful skin disease called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome last week at the age of 47. It is believed he contracted the disease from kidney medication he received in Africa.

From an integrated spiritual perspective here is the heaven on earth stat the matters the most. One of his former teams the Washington Wizards released this statement: “Despite his accomplishments on the court, his lasting legacy will be the tireless work and causes he promoted in his native Sudan and the cities in which he played.”

Bol donated nearly all of his $6 million in career earnings to his native Sudan.

This calls to mind a classic sacred teaching story.

“Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, worth only a fraction of a penny.” Stay tuned, the spiritual punch line is to come.

Bol’s native country has been ravaged by civil war since at least 1983. He was a product of Southern Sudan, where people are primarily Christians, like himself, or animists.

Murder and slavery have been used against non-Muslims for decades in Sudan. Bol, a native of the Dinka tribe, has had some 250 family members “killed at the hands of Muslims” through the years. But Bol, insisting extremists were the problem, championed the cause of unifying the warring factions.

He’d taken part in peace talks, appeared before Congress and protested outside of embassies. He’d visited refugee camps and given millions of dollars to support a rebel group.

According to reports, Bol exhausted the last of his money supporting 20 family members while trapped in Sudan. The government accused him of being a spy after the U.S. bombed Sudanese targets, in response to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Bol wasn’t allowed to leave until he paid a bribe, which required a yard sale of his furniture and other possessions.

Even as he rested on his deathbed, Bol was planning appearances to raise funds. He was a busy advocate for peace and the end of oppression in Sudan. His latest, and final, contribution was his pledge to build 41 schools in the country.

As Jesus is surfing the heavenly web today he is reprising the lofty praise he offered in regard to the impoverished widow 2,000 plus years ago.

“I tell you the truth, Manute has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but he, out of his poverty, put in everything–all he had to live on.”

Manute Bol embodied the riches of the adherents in Jesus’ sermonette and the spirit demonstrated by the widow.

As Jesus declared elsewhere, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Led by our Governor Rick Perry these believers wear Christianity on their chest like a Superman logo. They boldly and proudly proclaim the United States to be a Christian nation. If Texas were an independent nation, we would be the seventh-largest practitioner of capital punishment, just a smidgen behind Yemen, a failed state with a medieval judicial system.

This week David Lee Powell was executed by our Texas “Christian” system for killing an Austin police officer 32 years ago. The Austin American Statesman reported on the scene.

Seven members of the victim’s family watched silently from a nearby window.Strapped to the execution gurney with intravenous lines already inserted, Powell kept his eyes locked on members of officer Ralph Ablanedo’s family but did not acknowledge Warden Charles O’Reilly’s invitation to speak.
His head still turned toward the window, Powell half closed his eyes as the lethal combination of drugs began flowing at 6:10 p.m.

Ablanedo’s widow, Judy Mills, gripped the hand of son Steve Mills and cried quietly as the drugs took effect. A doctor pronounced the once-promising honors student dead nine minutes later. He was 59.

This is the first execution with which I had even minimal personal interaction. I interviewed the filmmaker of “Saving David Powell” Sally Norvell on my radio show “Soul Talk” and invited her to screen the film at my church. I called and e-mailed Travis county District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg numerous times to meet with her along with several of my parishioners concerning David’s execution. I wasn’t even extended the courtesy of a form letter rejection.

Former Texas state representative Sissy Farenthold has been visiting David Powell for 20 years. A few days ago she wrote.

“Powell has demonstrated his remorse and humanity by living a redemptive life for three decades. He has taught illiterate inmates how to read, write and improve their lives. He had no history of violence before his crime and none in his 32 years on death row. And he has expressed his deep remorse to Ablanedo’s family.

Restorative justice calls for Powell to be spared so that he can continue to address the needs and concerns of the Ablanedo family and the prison community in which he lives.”

It recently struck me like a Damascus road jolt that if St. Paul was a Texan the ruling “Christians” of this grand Republic would have executed him.

He was an accessory to the murder of Stephen one of the original church Deacons. Among the groups involved in his stoning were the “Freedman.” Today they would be FOX commentators. Before his Damascus road conversion St. Paul (then Saul) was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul had received warrants from the Supreme Court to search the synagogues for Christian disciples whom he would arrest and drag to prison.

God entreated a disciple named Ananias to go visit blinded by the light Saul. He was skittish to do so because he had “heard how much evil he has done to the saints at Jerusalem.”

But God assured Ananias, “He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.”

Since Saul was afforded the opportunity for redemption he became Paul, the greatest evangelist in the history of the Christian faith.

If Saul were a Texan he would have never become St. Paul. Before he had a chance to print up his gospel tracts, our pious officials would have executed him just like they did David Powell. The crude and cruel irony is that in so doing they likely would not have the honor of calling themselves by the noble name – Christian.

“Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the value of total production of goods and services in a country over a specified period, typically a year. How much GDP grows from one period to the next is an indication of a country’s economic health.”

Old money religion:

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.”

Right here on planet earth, in our day, old money religion meets new money religion. In King Khesar’s coronation address December 17, 2006, the 5th King of Bhutan proclaimed that fulfilling the vision of Gross National Happiness will be one of the primary responsibilities of his reign. The King spoke.

“Our country, in these changing times finds immense new challenges and opportunities, whatever work we do, whatever goals we have – and no matter how these may change in this changing world – ultimately without peace, security and happiness we have nothing. That is the essence of the philosophy of Gross National Happiness. Our most important goal is the peace and happiness of our people and the security and sovereignty of the nation.”

Gross National Happiness consists of nine core dimensions.
1. Psychological Well-being
2. Time Use
3. Community Vitality
4. Culture
5. Health
6. Education
7. Environmental Diversity
8. Living Standard
9. Governance

New money religion is one dimensional and predicated on forever increasing consumption.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaking before the House Budget Committee on June 9 assured the legislators.

“Even with a pullback in government stimulus, strengthening consumer spending should be sufficient to support the nascent recovery.”

Old money religion speaks a contrasting story.

“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”‘

But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

An Ancient Jewish Avatar and a Contemporary Buddhist King unite old money religion and new money religion in an eternal ethos.

“My deepest concern is that as the world changes we may lose these fundamental values on which rest our character as a nation and people. It is critical that we are able to recognize Bhutanese character irrespective of how far we look back into the past or into the future…the character of our people and the nature of our fundamental values have remained unchanged. Henceforth, as even more dramatic changes transform the world and our nation, as long as we continue to pursue the simple and timeless goal of being good human beings, and as long as we strive to build a nation that stands for everything that is good, we can ensure that our future generations for hundreds of years will live in happiness and peace.”

How do you say “Amen!” in Buddhist?

I do however sit up and take notice when the lives of foreign peace activists are lost. When this occurs Israel seems to always be the perpetrator. Its not that I care more about the lives of foreigners but their deaths are as not muddied in the morass of endless charges and counter charges.

Twenty three old American Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza on March 16, 2003, as she tried to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home.

Tom Hurndall was a 21-year-old photojournalism student who travelled to the Gaza Strip as part of the International Solidarity Movement.

He was shot in the head in April 2003 by an Israeli army sniper while trying to rescue Palestinian children in the street. He never regained consciousness and died nine months later in a London hospital.

British cameraman James Miller, 34, was shot dead by another soldier from the same Israeli unit just a mile away three weeks later. He was in Rafah while making a documentary for a US cable channel.

Tristan Anderson,38, had three brain operations after being shot in the head with a high-velocity tear gas canister by Israeli security forces on March 13, 2009.

Anderson, who survived with major brain damage, was in the West Bank village of Nilin, protesting with Palestinian farmers against the construction of Israel’s “separation wall”.

Early morning on May 31 Israeli soldiers stormed the Gaza-bound international aid convoy called the Freedom Flotilla in international waters about forty miles off the coast of Gaza. The six ships had nearly 700 international activists on board and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid. They were aiming to break the three-year-long siege of the Gaza Strip. Nine peace activists are confirmed dead.

Former US Ambassador Edward Peck was on the Gaza aid flotilla that came under attack by Israeli forces. He responded to an Israeli Ambassador’s claim that their soldiers were acting in self -defense.

“Everything he said, as far as I’m concerned, is what you find in a meadow somewhere where they keep large animals. One of the things I find that is the twist in this thing was that these peaceful, heavily armed commandos who were in international waters to capture a ship full of men and women, who were not bothering Israel, and who took what steps they could to try to prevent these pirates from doing it, are accused of attacking them. Mr. deputy ambassador, they were defending the ship. The Israelis were attacking it, and the passengers didn’t want them to do it. And to see somebody using a deckchair against a heavily armed and armored Israeli soldier, I mean, my god, that’s a dangerous weapon. It’s called twisting the story. If you come to attack me and I defend myself, you know, that’s considered legal in law.”

Ironically, another peace activist ship called the Rachel Corrie is sailing toward Gaza as I write.

The lament of a well-known Jewish Rabbi millennia ago still holds water.
.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Jesus opened his mouth and taught them…“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

I raised my hand in our freshman Bible class at Abilene Christian College. “God seems to be very different in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. Did God change? Did God evolve over time?”

Dr. Brecheen answered calmly and reliably. “Oh no.” “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”

I was just a 17-year-old kid, and I had no doctor’s degree but it seemed like there was some Olympian religious gymnastics going on here. First of all the text says, “Jesus Christ is the same.”

Now, I was willing to make the Gospel of John leap, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

But beyond that, my professor’s response though sincere lacked basic candor or authenticity. In one scripture God is ordering revenge & genocide and later his Son is teaching us to love and pray for our enemies so we can be like God! Jesus wouldn’t be the first son to rebel against his father, but from all I read they seemed to have a pretty tight oneness.

At this point I committed myself to reading the Bible cover to cover making every effort to forget what my fundamentalist preacher Father and Church had told me it said.

I still have that worn out Harper’s Study Bible, a holy artifact of my spiritual pilgrimage. Before I ever heard of Jung, Campbell, or Process Theology it became clear to me that either God or Humanity had evolved along the way. I have come to believe now we have essentially created God in our own image.

Ever since Emperor Constantine’s dream that envisioned a symbol of Christ on his victorious soldier’s shields Jesus Christ became a warrior God like his Old Testament father. He became the God of Empire.

In more contemporary western history this Christ God imbued and blessed the British and American Empires. The American creed is Manifest Destiny.

How did God’s non-violent conversion come about?

In 1846 a Universalist preacher named Adin Ballou wrote a book titled Christian Non-Resistance. Thoreau read it and penned an essay, Civil Disobedience. Gandhi read Thoreau and was inspired to employ non-violence to bring down the British Empire in India. A Christian Minister named King emulated Gandhi and brought non-violence to the American Empire.

An American Universalist influenced a New England Unitarian Transcendentalist who invigorated an Indian Hindu to set the captive Christ God free from Empire. The zealous Hindu served as a model for an African American Christian to call his nation to conscience through the liberated Jesus.

Here at home the urgent necessity for an evolved non-violent God comes to mind as riled up “Christian nation patriots” throw bricks through windows, spit on elected leaders, hurl vile epithets threaten lives, and “Christian Militiamen” are arrested for plotting to murder police officers.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a 244 percent increase in the number of active Patriot groups in 2009. Militias, the paramilitary arm of the Patriot movement were a major part of the increase, growing from 42 militias in 2008 to 127 in 2009.

All the while our President makes a Sunday surprise visit to Afghanistan with an impassioned defense of the war exhuming the putrefied argument, “We were attacked viciously on 9/11…this is the region where the perpetrators of that crime, al Qaeda, still base their leadership.”

Gandhi declared & then admonished, “Jesus was the most active resister known perhaps to history. His was non-violence par excellence…I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”

The Bagram tent revival closed with the ritual Presidential altar call. “God bless you. God bless the United States Armed Forces. And God bless the United States of America.”

Which God will we pledge our allegiance to; the tribal warrior Father, or his “converted” risen Son?

One of his disciples, Glenn Beck went off on Jesus. “Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution, and it was designed to eat the Constitution, to progress past the Constitution.”

Jesus gently chuckled and explained. “This is a party where each successive course is eaten at a different host’s house – the guests progress from house to house. Hence, the name progressive dinner party.”

Glenn was still suspicious, but this was Jesus for God’s sake. He decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

The first stop was at the home of a fellow disciple who was an IRS agent. While they were having dinner many other tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with them. Glenn began to mumble to the other disciples, “Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Righteous Glenn kind of liked this. He considered them to be sicko “tax and spend” sinners as well.

On the next stop of their progressive dinner party Jesus took his followers to a big rally.
“When Jesus saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” This disturbed Glenn because not one of them presented an insurance card. It seemed a bit “socialist” to him.

As evening approached, Glenn came to Jesus and demanded, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”The other disciples offered, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.”

“Bring them here to me,” Jesus said. He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

By now Glenn was getting exasperated with Jesus. He turned to the other disciples and railed.

“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion…are going to come under the ropes in the next year…I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’. If Jesus uses these words run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising you to leave this group? Yes!”

Glenn aimed to show Jesus the way it should be done. So, he volunteered to host the final leg of the progressive dinner party.

Glenn provided a sumptuous feast. He sat at the head of the table with all of his prominent FOX broadcasters seated in order of their cultural eminence.

Then Jesus said to Glenn, “When you give a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Glenn was enraged. He knew now beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was not only a socialist but a Marxist. Glenn had his Foxwater security agents evict Jesus from the progressive dinner party.

As the door hit Jesus on the backside he looked at Glenn with the same compassion he offered to the tired, penniless peasants he had healed and fed earlier.

With sorrow in his eyes Jesus spoke. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

A 62 year- old grandmother had stood in line since lunch with 3 of her of her grandchildren. It was now well into the dark of night. She spoke, “I voted for Bush last time…but I’m for Senator Obama now. He represents change. We owe that to the coming generations.” The candidate stepped on stage around 10 pm. to the delirious shouts of the multitude, “Houston, I think we’ve achieved liftoff.”

A group of people from my church is watching Bill Moyer’s timeless “Power of Myth” interview series with Joseph Campbell. Last night Campbell passionately observed, “I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

In his radio address this past weekend President Bush made these comments in regard to his unconstitutional Orwellian named “Protect America Act,” “Because Congress failed to act, it will be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack. At midnight, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence will be stripped of their power to authorize new surveillance against terrorist threats abroad…and we may lose a vital lead that could prevent an attack on America.”

Here is a portion of Senator Obama’s Houston speech. “We haven’t had leaders who can inspire the American people to rally behind a common purpose and a higher purpose….

I want to end a politics based on fear that uses 9/11 as a way to scare up votes instead of a way to bring the country together against a common enemy….We are going to lead by example, by maintaining the highest standards of civil liberties and human rights, which is why I will close Guantanamo and restore habeas corpus and say no to torture… You can elect a president who has taught the Constitution, and believes in the Constitution, and will obey the Constitution of the United States of America….All these things are possible, if you are ready for change.”

Before I proceed, let me be clear that I am not currently a supporter of Obama. I was an Edwards guy who respected his clear, decisive, confrontation of the collusion between government and corporation. I have been a critic of Obama feeling that he is offering bromides in the place of steely resolve. I have clearly missed something that Clinton’s & McCain’s “experienced, ready to lead on day one” campaigns have also missed.

Joseph Campbell reminds me of that spine tingling summation Yahweh gave to the children of Israel in sealing his covenant with them. “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

That’s what Obama has tapped into on a spiritual, mythical, instinctive level. The Bush regime has zealously cultivated a dastardly culture of death. Right now, Obama is our hungering and thirsting for life in the flesh. The elation, the streaming tears, the devotion, the sacrifice of Obama adherents reflects a cosmic truth. It’s not about solutions, it’s not about policies, and it’s not even about political allegiances. It’s a matter Life and Death.