American Society has generally failed miserably to initiate men into manhood or recognize the value and qualities of “eldership”

Obama is too young and has not gone through enough initiation ordeals in his life to give him the kind of strength I’m talking about. He's seems to be surrounded by supporting women which doesn't always allow a man to test his mettle.

Being an orator or sending a million troops into battle doesn’t make a man and is not a sign of strength or wisdom. Paddling each other at prep school doesn’t count either.

Obama has not gone through the fire. If he think he has, that's proof that he hasn't. However, he WILL go through the fire during a presidency.

That means it will be up to the citizens of the USA to hold the threads together because he will be going through his own crisis.

You could say his crisis of testing will be our crisis of testing of how strong we are as citizens. Can we stand up and what do we really stand for?

Once again, it will be time to respond to JKF "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country."

But now...we have to ask on a more global EARTH level.

"Ask not what I can take from the Earth, but what can I do for the Earth."


Considering that we have consistently dumped our responsibilities of citizenship onto hapless politicians and deteriorated into gossip and "debate" instead of action, I would say that I would prefer a steadier and more tested arm to hold us through the next decade of social, cultural and economic, environmental crisis and revolution.


When our leaders have not been initiated and are not true elders, society unravels.


LBJ is an example of a President that went through an initiation fire in office. He tragically sent thousand of troops to die in Viet Nam and finally had a crisis of consciousness and discovered his mistake and decided to not run for another term.

Growing up is not easy. We are having a romance with Obama but you know what happens to romance.

I think the gender issue is bigger CHANGE than the race issue. I work with women of all races and ALL the women have the SAME complaints about men, no matter what race they are. So I don’t think voting for a black man is much different than voting for a white man. Skin color is skin deep whereas hormones and the ability to give birth is a much deeper difference.

So I really hope Obama chooses a woman as a running mate.

You asked about a running mate.


Barbara Boxer stood against the whole of the rest of the US politics to stick to her truth. That was an initiation experience and I’d like to see at least one person in the next administration that has that quality.


We need to send politicians out into the wilderness for forty days and nights with only a knife and no clothes.

I think the popularity of Obama reflects the citizen’s desire to be more active participants but I’m not sure the citizens actually know what that is going to require.