>     Barack Obama is running against Hilary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Surprisingly, he would appoint her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to a position in an Obama Administration in “a second” because “there are few more talented people” Obama is quoted as saying in a recently released TIME magazine article.
    New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg met yesterday with Republican Senator Chuck Hagel and today met with Barack Obama. There is speculation that Bloomberg, with his extraordinary personal wealth, is considering running as an Independent for the Presidential nomination in 2008 and is picking his Vice Presidential running mate now, or strategizing, to set forth what the “total package” would be.
    What’s going on? Feel like you’re falling through the looking glass? What’s going on is called “change” and it’s very, very good
    I watched the Republican YouTube debate two nights ago. What a farce and disappointment. Actually, not so much different that the Democratic debate a few weeks ago. And I know my feelings represent the way most Americans feel about our government. It’s corrupt, it’s too big, it’s self-serving to the few, in disregard of the many, and populated by insiders who perpetuate all of what I’ve just mentioned. So, it’s a little exciting, and should stir hope in your heart, that Barack Obama would cross a line and flatly state that he would appoint not only an ex-President of the United States but his opponent’s husband to a position if elected because the man is talented.
    Sounds to me like merit-based, instead of patronage-based employment.
    As for the aspirations or intentions of Mayor Bloomberg, well yes… he is white, male and wealthy so there’s a lot of “Old Guard” and “Old Boy” there..but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Bloomberg is obviously trying to think outside the box, in one direction or another, and that’s the only way we’re going to pull ourselves up out of this mess. So, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and see where all of this is heading.
    Personally, I believe there are enough of us out here ready to make the jump, in a new direction in terms of leadership, if only those leaders will step forward who have the courage to speak not only truth to power but to us as well. We absolutely do know when we’re being manipulated and when we’re being respected. We’ve always known. It’s just recently, however, that we’ve awakened to what our responsibility is in making sure that we are treated with integrity and respect…and we each definitely have a part, as well as a duty, in assuring that outcome.
    I had a little locally-based but related chuckle yesterday around this very issue. The newly elected Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, has pledged to clean up the Philadelphia Parking Authority, recently identified as a bastion of corruption and improper use of funds. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Randell also pledged to look into the matter and seek both clarification and resolution. My chuckle came from the fact that 31 years ago I was an appointee to City government in Philadelphia during Mayor Bill Green’s Administration and it was common knowledge that the Parking Authority was both corrupt and a patronage stronghold. It always has been. So this is a perfect example of how the way government has been “leading us” changes nothing and institutionalizes less than integrity-based behavior.
    Which is why I welcome mavericks like Obama and Bloomberg. I’m not a Pollyanna and I don’t think any of them will “save us.” But a few good men and women, willing to break some molds and take some risks, can do wonders. Take Socrates, Joan of Arc, the Colonists, the Founding Fathers (and Mothers), Rosa Parks, or Mother Teresa. 
    Perhaps in the not so distant future I’ll be able to write, “Take Barack Obama or Michael Bloomberg….”

> Sometimes it takes a while for the truth to surface…but it always does. That’s the beauty of the truth. It inherently rises upward. Two of the most recent examples are 1) the disclosure by Scott McClellan, former Press Secretary to President Bush, that McClellan was deliberately fed misinformation by the President, Vice President, Karl Rove and “Scooter” Libby regarding the “outing” of the identity of Valerie Plame and 2) the recent arrest of three young men in Aruba in connection with the disappearance and apparent death of American high school graduate Natalie Halloway. It’s taken awhile, yes, but in both cases the truth is being outed.
    We are living though a transition in human consciousness that effectively “removes the masks and veils” that have for so long obscured our ability, and our choice, to know and confront the truth. Previously, deceptions and manipulations either went unnoticed or were readily accepted by most in order to maintain the status quo.
    In case you haven’t noticed, those days are over.
    Whether in your personal life or in connection with more public matters, it will now be increasingly difficult and in some cases impossible to see, and know, anything but the truth. Many of us have been experiencing this reality for some time now in our personal and professional lives. Old ways of doing things that lack integrity are no longer working. Integrity means not just truth telling, but a commitment to the wholeness of an idea or action, not just the self-serving aspects of it. Integrity is proceeding from an internal knowing that all living beings and all outcomes are connected. To deceive another is to deceive oneself…not figuratively or philosophically…but literally.
    Many of us lament the world in which we find ourselves. We find it nearly impossible to keep up with the pace of things, are disillusioned by the endemic dishonesty all around us, and frustrated by our inability to affect change. But each of these challenges, and their cures, begin with how honest we have been with ourselves and in our dealings with the world and others.
    The outer world in which we find ourselves is but a reflection of our own inner worlds. When we are willing to stop the rushing, competing, denials and quest for more and more having…and face the truth of what we know in our hearts, then and only then will the quality of our outer world change.
    Many people are now stepping up and turning off the repeated messages that have been programmed within them to consciously alter their behavioral patterns in order to create a more harmonious and truth-based world. Those who are waking to this challenge and opportunity will, in fact, ride the wave to that higher vibration.
    Those who choose to remain in a world run by manipulation and deception will effectively miss the wave. As with everything else, the choice is yours.
    While you are pondering which path to take, imagine yourself today to be Valerie Plame or Natalie Halloway’s parents now that those truths are surfacing.
    Then imagine how liberating, and satisfying, the truth can be.

        >With Thanksgiving just a day away, I’m thinking about how the holiday provides a time for us to STOP and give thanks. What a wonderful change of pace this is to the endless “make and consume more” mode most of us find ourselves mired in. Now, if we take this thought just a little further we arrive at a less obvious and more insidious mode.
    Every minute of our lives is an opportunity to STOP the endless mental chatter that goes on in our minds as we worry over, plan or anticipate past and future events that are either long gone or likely never to occur. What captivates us, and hold us captive to the mental chatter, are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our lives. It’s in these stories that we get caught up and lose sight of the fact that we are not our stories…but rather the consciousness or awareness behind them. Once you remove yourself from the story…with all it’s drama…you also remove the stress and pressures that accompanies your stories and are more able to be grateful and joyful in the moment.
    Just for a moment, think about what causes you emotional pain or  suffering. Now, take away the story you thought about to generate the pain or suffering and just experience the emotion itself. What soon becomes apparent is that without the story the emotion quickly loses energy until it’s gone! So while it is, at times, important and necessary to deeply “be” in the negative emotions you are feeling…it is never important or necessary to replay the story around those emotions and thereby perpetuate your pain and suffering.
    When you STOP telling yourself and others your stories, what you create is an opening in the present to fully experience whatever is available in the moment instead of living in the story of your past or as yet to be future.
    STOPing is not supported in our society. We live in a world where doing and getting and advancing are exalted…where motion is the prized activity. But motion is too often our escape from emotion. It’s in fully being present in our emotions as they are occurring that makes us capable of truly knowing ourselves and others.
    The trick is to STOP when you are having an emotional experience and, without either reacting to it or running from it, fully experience the depth and breadth of what you are feeling. Trust that whatever that emotion is, and however powerful it’s intensity, the pure experience of it is the very thing you are likely both looking for in your life…and running from, as well.
    So, not just on Thanksgiving, but on every day of your life, STOP and express gratitude for your ability to deeply feel…for it is through your feeling self that you have the most direct path to knowing the Oneness of It All.
    Gobble. Gobble.

>    Some blogs are more personal than others.
    Recently I visited my 91-year-old mother who lives in Florida alone and, for the most part, still independently. She is quite fit physically, although her cognitive skills are deteriorating more rapidly as of late. While there is much written on the challenges of caring for the elderly, and especially those with decreasing mental capacity, I prefer to make a somewhat different observation.
    What was most striking to me about my mother’s behavior was that it has become pretty much a “microcosm” of what used to be a “macrocosm.”  By that, I mean that while she now spends her days and nights mainly in or just outside her condominium, the things that matter to her and how she spends her time have not changed, they have simply gotten smaller and more intense in scope.
    For example, my mother was always straightening up our house as I was growing up and so now she is still straightening up her “house”…even though there is virtually nothing to straighten. (She has a professional cleaning woman weekly). She also watched a lot of television, as I recall, so now the TV is on every waking hour, whether or not she is watching it…and she watches it hours on end. She was always insecure about her ability to manage her personal matters and paperwork, and so she daily reviews the mail scrupulously and repeatedly…even bulk mail. She was always mistrustful of others and so she shreds every envelope into narrow strips so no one can steal her name or address. And, sadly, she always had difficulty being close and intimate…or making conversation…so for three days we did lots of task oriented chores, watched TV, and spoke little.
    Interestingly, I saw this same macro/micro transition in my father the year or two before he died.
    Which brings me to my observation.
    As we age, unless we have spent a great deal of time open and committed to change and the willingness to confront our personal demons, we will likely end our lives mired in the same patterns in which we lived them.
    The good news is that there is a way out of this cycle of patterns. It’s called self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is an ongoing, spiritual practice of moving more and more inward towards the Truth of who we each are. It seeks neither justification nor explanation, excuse nor escape…but rather silence, relentless honesty, and a fierce desire to receive the gift of knowing that what we spend the most time running from is the very thing we seek: Oneness. It’s the realization that every attachment is a loss waiting to happen and the only thing that’s real and eternal is who we are beyond our bodies and beyond our attachments.
    Who you are is the awareness that is reading this blog. Not the eyes that are seeing it, or the mind that is processing the message, or the body that is sitting in the chair, but the awareness that you have eyes, a mind, and a body.
    I feel so blessed to know this much about my life with time still to live it. I wish it could be different for my mother, but she has made her choices and held on to her patterns as she has…and I suspect there is a certain amount of comfort for her in having done so.
    I seek growth, not comfort, and growth does not come without the tension created by expanding boundaries. I hope I remain focused on this inner journey throughout my life.
    I also hope that if my daughter writes a blog some day about the last days of her mother, it will be about how until the end I was surrendering to Truth and embracing change.

> Last night I watched the Democrat Presidential debate from Las Vegas and listened to CNN’s media commentary immediately following. This morning I am reading media accounts of it and, all told, am convinced that there are at any one time alternate realities operating.
    The choice is ours as to which one we want to participate in.
    CNN’s coverage following the debate included Andersen Cooper, David Gergen and J.C. Watts.  Their astute observations and conclusions can be wrapped up in one sentence: Hilary regained her ground, Obama and Edwards missed an opportunity to stay on the attack, and the first 10 minutes of the debate that were frought with petty infighting were the best.
    This morning, other media analysis follows suit, with the Republicans choosing to stay on the attack of Clinton’s “inconsistent” statements on various issues as they continue to think she is the horse to beat in this race.
    I, on the other hand (or should I say in the other reality) watched a remarkably uplifting and encouraging debate among several intelligent and informed individuals who, after a few minutes of going after one another, gave it up in order to passionately address in as much specificity as time allowed the issues that matter to us…the American people.
    What a change!
    Change is good.
    What the candidates did, led I might say by Joe Biden, Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, was to cut through so much of the “political speak” and parsing of words to talk straight from the heart and shoot straight from the hip, showing us they finally hear that we don’t trust them anymore.
    This is a very good sign.
    Some even threw caution completely to the wind…and it may cost them. Bill Richardson said “Human Rights are more important than national security” which will hurt him and give the Conservative Right Wing glee and fodder for their canons. I suspect that Richardson was trying to say the two were inextricably bound and that without demanding and enforcing human rights at home and abroad we negatively impact our credibility and security. In fact, the other candidates who had time to reflect on the question tried to say something along those lines. But look at Richardson’s courage in bringing human rights to the forefront and giving it the status it deserves. Bravo!
    This was not your usual meaningless, controlled, cautious political debate scripted for mass appeal.
    This was the Democrat Party coming alive again, the party I grew up with and remember. This was the passion and speaking truth to power I want to see in leaders of the 21st century.
    Yes, they’re still not perfect and there’s still a lot of gamesmanship and manipulating of the facts going on. But be assured. Last night the pendulum swung back toward the truth and the momentum shifted.     That momentum is fueled by We The People, and now having moved in a new direction, will not cease it’s path. We The People have demanded quietly, and now more vociferously, that business as usual must go and be replaced with a system and a paradigm that support growth, integrity and human dignity.
    That’s the reality I’m living in and hope you join me here. The media and the Republicans may choose to put a more controlled spin on what occurred last night but I’d advise them to beware.
    We The People are speaking…and they better be listening… because the Democrats are.
    

         >In Bangladesh, 1100 people have died from a cyclone with 600,000 people fleeing from their homes with the possibility of more flooding on the way. Last week extreme weather off the coast of Russia was the cause of 10 ships being sunk, one an oil tanker that spilled 1.5 million gallons of oil. The Southeast United States is in the middle of an historic drought with no end in sight.
    Do we really think that the greatest threat to our continued existence is Al Qaeda or the Taliban?
    While there is no doubt that radical militant groups pose a threat to world peace, there is a less obvious but more important issue that we need to address. It’s the imbalance within Nature and its effect upon the planet.
    I am not saying that humankind’s behavior and seemingly endless appetite for and consumption of natural resources are the direct causes of this imbalance, although a pretty good argument can likely be made for the case that they are. Personally, I think that what we are witnessing is more the natural environment’s reflection of where we’ve allowed ourselves to drift.By drift, I mean the way in which we so willingly abdicated responsibility for our thoughts, words and actions for the past several thousand years. You simply cannot act with disregard for your own integrity while living in denial regarding the connection between that kind of behavior and outcomes.
    Just as I believe we get the leaders we deserve, so too do I believe we get the reality we deserve, or perhaps, the reality we support.
    Among spiritualists, and mystics of all religions, meditation is the practice of going inside yourself to focus upon breath or God or Oneness to reach a higher or broader view. But what happens when the meditation that is practiced daily is constantly putting thoughts upon achieving more…acquiring more…winning at at all cost…having the newest car or the biggest house? This too is practicing a form of meditation. If where you put your thoughts and words and actions for most of your waking hours is upon such things, then this is your meditation and the reality you’re supporting.
    So much of our time and energies in both the West and the East are devoted to acquisition and consumption, or control and conquest, that we have created a “view”…a reality…that is out of balance. Where are the thoughts, words and deeds that bring us together, foster peace, create harmony and teach respect for all forms of life? Where is the balance?
    We are the determining factor in the world in which we live for we have been gifted both the ability to reason as well as free will. When we use these gifts unwisely and create a reality that is out of balance, that mis-creation can be seen in reflection by peering into the natural world.
    Earth is also a living thing and it too requires harmony and balance. Lacking both, it responds by upheaval and with extreme acts such as cyclones, drought and wildly brewing seas.
    Can we learn, now and finally, that we and Nature are partners, arm in arm? That while we may subdue Nature, we may not destroy it…for in the face of its own destruction, it will gather its own forces and by so doing, make Al Qaeda and the Taliban look like child’s play.

>     Most of us were not raised with all of the information that is readily available today. By that I mean the “consciousness” available. Most of us were raised during a time when, for the most part, humankind was in a kind of sleep state from which it is now collectively awakening. In that sleep state, we were not only self-centered and lacking personal responsibility, but also tended to use one of two types of mechanisms to get what we wanted from others…either manipulation or seduction. Neither technique was confined by gender, although seduction will most easily come to mind as used by women to get what they wanted from men. But that’s a cheap and easy out, since advertisers and media have long used the art of seduction (via sexually contrived advertising) to manipulate us into buying what it they’re selling. Manipulation and seduction have been the bedrocks of a materialistically based society and have been the “tools of the trade” of humankind for these millennia.
    The casualties of using manipulation and seduction are truth and intimacy. Rather large prices to pay for short-term satisfaction, wouldn’t you agree? Whether in personal or global relationships, when one feels manipulated or seduced into less than desirable behavior there is a residual feeling that the “other” cannot be trusted. Without trust, intimacy is impossible. And again, intimacy is so much more than sexual intimacy. Intimacy is defined as “a close association with or detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc.” Without intimacy it’s impossible to transcend the apparent
differences between individuals and nations in order to reach the higher levels of trust-based exchange and relationship that are needed to create peace. Lack of trust and intimacy breeds fear and sustains separation. the hallmarks of the sleep state in which we have been living.
    The really good news is that we are awakening to a new realization and commitment to a more productive and life affirming way of getting what it is we want. Rather than through manipulation and seduction we are choosing to turn inward and attempt to perfect out own thoughts, words, actions and, ultimately, behavior, to create the world we desire rather than trying to bring it forth through deception.
    The odds are with us now as more and more of us awaken. A structure built on a weak foundation, which is what deception is, must inevitably crumble. However, one built upon an enduring and secure foundation will likely stand the test of Time.
    In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a world of Time and so it would be best to remain conscious and build that which we create in light of it’s, and our, need to endure.

>     During the period between 2002-2004, two Chinese pro-democracy dissidents named Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao used Yahoo’s message boards to post information about China’s persecution of pro-democracy activists. The Chinese government asked Yahoo to provide the IP addresses and e-mail accounts on the postings and Yahoo complied. The two dissidents were arrested and Shi is now spending 10 years in a Chinese dungeon for his views and actions in creating the postings. Yahoo, when asked by Congressional investigators why they provided the information stated that 1) they had to comply with local law and 2) at the time Yahoo turned over the information they did not know the nature of the investigation. It turns out that a later published version of the Chinese government’s request indicated that the basis for the request and the focus of the investigation was clear at the time Yahoo complied.
    Yahoo representatives, it seems, lied to Congress.
    Now there’s a shock. 
    Congressional hearings commenced yesterday on Yahoo’s behavior. Twelve lawyers representing Yahoo prepared one lawyer, Michael Callahan (Yahoo’s Executive V.P. and General Counsel), to testify  before Congress regarding the incident. Mr. Callahan called Yahoo’s failure to honestly admit to what it had known a “misunderstanding” and said it “did not occur” to Yahoo to bring the “new information” to Congress.
    
As a former practicing attorney, I am often proud of the determination
and creativity I periodically see in the practice of law by fellow
lawyers. I am equally perplexed and ashamed by the dishonesty and
stupidity I periodically see as well.
    Let’s take it one Yahoo excuse at a time.
    First, Yahoo said it did not know the nature of the investigation when it turned over the requested information. Since a later disclosure and translation of the request document itself by the human rights group Dui Hua clearly showed this to be untrue, we are faced with the willful and knowing intention by Yahoo executives to lie.
    For profit. Surely that is what this is all about. Yahoo wanted and still wants to be in on the booming Chinese internet market and weighed it’s integrity against it’s bottom line and integrity came up light. Surely there’s enough profit in Yahoo that it did not need to proceed in this way at this time. Or maybe not. Maybe what my dear friend Ruth used to say about human frailty is true: “More is never enough.” If that’s the case, and it’s also the sole motivator for Yahoo’s corporate mission (regardless of what they say the mission is) then we cannot rely on their corporate integrity.
    Secondly, as to Yahoo’s having to “comply with local law”…well, this is where I’d have preferred those thirteen lawyers to have risen to the occasion rather than acquiesced to it. Surely thirteen U.S. educated, bright, legal minds could have used the energy they used to deceive Congress to instead come up with a rationale for the Chinese government as to why they could not have turned over the requested information.
    I think the lesson in all of this is that when we are motivated solely by our wallets without the benefit of guidance from our conscience we find it easy, and justifiable, to stray further and further from what is the highest good for all concerned.
    I used to be in business with a woman whose specialty is in the field of data mining. When this original story broke, she said “Yahoo probably complied with the Chinese government’s request because they wanted to continue to do business in China in the hopes of bringing Western ideas and democracy in through the internet. Shi was a small sacrifice for the higher good.”
    Nice spin…but I don’t think it works that way.   
    I think compromising your integrity on core principles and values is a very slippery slope.  When you justify decisions that make those compromises you just grease the slide.
    Perhaps Yahoo can take a lesson from my personal approach.
    Ever since I married 16 years ago, my husband always tries to suggest a vacation in Jamaica when we’re looking for a place to go. It’s sort of become a little family joke, but it’s none-the-less true. Whenever he mentions Jamaica and how lovely it is and how there’s a beautiful Sandals Resort there…I always respond with “I don’t vacation in a country that  doesn’t have a human rights policy.”
    Now I realize that limits where I will vacation and what I might see in this lifetime. But I like to vote with my wallet.
    Yahoo, are you listening?