BARACK'S CALLING AND MINE

I'm invigorated. And exhausted. And I look forward to writing more about subjects not related to this election in a few weeks. But have no doubt, this election process, and my writing so much about it, was not about politics for me. As I've said many times before, I am apolitical, and I identify with no political party, not the Democratic Party, not the Republican Party, not even the Independent Party. I have carefully watched the goings on in government for my entire adult life, however, as a student of sociology and economics, and so I've not been an oblivious bystander. Not at all. But since 1980, I have abstained from voting in the general elections for president because I have not found any true leadership qualities in any of the candidates. As moronic and insipid as George W. Bush was/is, and as close to truly evil as Dick Cheney was/is, I found no inspiration in Al Gore or John Kerry, although I know that they were at least intelligent men.

This year is different, different than anything I have witnessed since I became aware of public service in the 1960's. Back then, I was truly inspired by what some leaders were saying about the great possibilities for enlightenment and unity in America and the world. That's how I ended up ultimately becoming a social worker, instead of an economist.
But then came the assassinations of 1963 and 1968, and in the 1970's, the shootings at Kent State, and finally Watergate, and worse than Watergate: Gerald Ford's cynical pardoning of Nixon afterwards. By 1980, and the election of Ronald Reagan, I was committed to doing what I could to elevate consciousness on an individual basis, one person at a time, starting with myself. Only Mario Cuomo in the late 80's could have brought me back into national politics, but he passed. (I did get to play softball against him in Central Park, however.)

Now, there's Barack Obama. In spite of the rabid attacks of the dinosaurs and Flintstones who are quickly becoming extinct, Obama is neither white nor black, red nor blue, left nor right, capitalist nor socialist in his heart, mind or soul. He is - like me - a conscious man, intent on doing whatever works to bring people to a higher place of awareness, cooperativeness and togetherness.

This is not political for him. This is a calling. And I understand that.

With his top-of-his-class, Harvard credentials, Senator Obama could have been a wealthy partner in a law firm heading for a nice golden parachute by now. Instead, he became a community organizer on the working class streets of Chicago. When I was majoring in economics and accounting, with a straight A record, I knew I had a spot waiting for me at Coopers & Lybrand's accounting firm where my rich godfather, "Uncle Vinny," was a partner. But instead, I became a social worker and worked with the abandoned street kids in Times Square.

It's very hard for the greedy, power-hungry, cynical, win-at-all-costs politicians, and for their narrow-minded, fearful, love-Eros-and-sex-deprived constituents to understand what it is to have a calling, so they don't believe Barack Obama. They wonder what he's "really" up to. He must have some sinister motive.

But I know what Barack is up to. He wants humanity to evolve, and he is called to facilitate. I understand. I love that.