If I Only Had A Brain: Overcoming The Manipulation Of Celebrity Political Endorsements

The right to vote is a privilege that we have long taken for granted. It has become subject to the indifference of our entitlement rather than being subject to the scrutiny of our responsibility. The important work for this election will not be accomplished by the candidates, or at least it shouldn't be. The most important and essential work for this next Presidential election is to be accomplished by the electorate, the American voter...you and me.

Our tendency is to believe that on November 4, 2008, we will go into the voter's booth, push a button or two, and magically, our candidate , whoever they may be, will be elected to office. When, in fact, the real work must be taking place right now, in the privacy of our homes, as we do the research required to make the best possible decision. The alternative is that we continue to spend months on end being dirtied by political mudslinging while we sit on the sidelines and let the candidates "fight it out". Political campaigns have become sport and we have become spectators. And, this is what we call democracy?

Political campaigning has become a sideshow, of sorts, designed to distract us from the real work we need to do to put forth an honest vote. Candidates for public office, Presidential or otherwise, are not to be sold to us like exercise equipment on a late-night infomercial. We must choose who our personal candidate will be, and not told who they will be. Voting is as much an exercise of freewill as anything. Rights come with responsibilities. We, then, need to be responsible in how we make the decision. In order to exercise our right to vote, it is incumbent upon us to turn away from the glitz and glamour of the political "red carpet" back to the organic nature of true democratic process. We are too far afield of the essence of the democracy, and have become far too enamored with the fame and celebrity overshadowing the candidates.

Exercising your right to vote consists of 4 essential steps:

1. Knowledge of the candidates. Who they are. Why they're running. What they stand for.
2. Understanding of your personal values. What you believe and why.
3. Diligence: Which candidate has most closely demonstrated that he or she values what you value. (Tip: This decision should not be party-based, it should be value-based.)
4. Vote using the information you acquired in completing steps 1-3 above.

Voting is a private decision albeit one that has public rewards or consequences, or both. Our individual votes determine who will decide how we will live as a nation and what our role in the world will be. It is not a decision that should be taken lightly or left up to someone else to make for us because ultimately, the choice is ours and we will be held accountable before GOD for it.

We have minds of our own we need to use them to make the right decisions. We have to stop the cycle of being influenced by another person's world view. Each of us has a world view, and therefore, each of us also has the responsibility of doing some heavy lifting, pitting value to value, between now and the next Presidential election. Our votes should not be based on what someone else thinks or believes. We have the inherent capacity of being able to make informed decisions and we need to use it. We don't need celebrity endorsements, multi-million dollar campaign "war chests", special interests, or any such thing.



When you step into the voting booth in November 2008, it should be just you and your candidate. The only voice in your head should be one telling you that you can confidently vote for the candidate that you believe will, based on your own due diligence, best fulfill the spiritual, intellectual, ethical, and physical demands that will be required of our next President. It's your voice and it's your choice. Choose wisely.

Unheard and Unseen: The Plight of America's Homeless Poor

With the rare exception of a special report produced by educational television channels and shown sandwiched between reruns late at night, we seldom see the faces of America's enormous homeless population. They live their street lives in decaying downtowns and slum districts, hidden from our daily commute between work and the suburbs.

I live in the Los Angeles County section of Southern California. Within my one county are more than 90,000 people who have nowhere to call home. Like most of my neighbors, I never use public transportation or visit the poorer areas. Unless I make a special effort, I never see the thousands on the sidewalks.

It is only when disaster strikes a poor area that the country sees the face of poverty. After Andrew in southern Florida and Katrina on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the omnipresent television cameras caught a glimpse of what it is like to be poor in America. We saw the faces of the forgotten lined up in the Superdome and had to admit that the national dream of success and a comfortable lifestyle does not extend to everyone.

There are those who believe that the poor bring on their own misery. That anyone with any motivation would be able to work themselves out of the mess. Certainly there are thousands of homeless who have drifted away from the larger society because of drugs or mental illness, the have-nots who fail to qualify for the treatment and rehabilitation programs established for the more fortunate.

Many thousand more are simply victims of domestic violence, illness, structural unemployment, or a series of events that devastated their former working or middle class lives. Many thousands are simply the working poor. Lacking skills and contacts, they trudge daily to minimum wage, low level positions: motel maid, security guard, custodian, waitress, or day labor. The minimum wage is a social farce for a single individual, never mind someone with children or family to support.

Can Congress or the Administration explain how someone clearing less than $200 per week can feed and clothe themselves and their family and yet set aside enough money for even the cheapest apartment? Can the finest financial minds in the country calculate how to pay first and last month rent and a security deposit when there are only pennies left at the end of the week?

Yet President Bush moved to suspend the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Is it his theory that the poor don't deserve the protection of prevailing wages so he can use that money to protect them from terrorism?

The poor and the homeless don't even think about a bomber at an airport or what's happening in the Middle East. They have more pressing concerns such as where is their next meal coming from, how can they educate their children, and where would be the safest place to spend the night.

And the oil companies, with their already obscene profits, get a tax break.

Where are we heading, folks?

Katrina: Victims For Life?

There can be no debate about the horror of the World Trade Center attack. No conceivable rational excuse for the criminal destruction of spectacular buildings and thousands of innocent lives can be advanced. It was monstrous; it was deadly; it was immoral.

Four years later, the survivors still mourn their loved ones and the world looks to ground zero as the crucial moment when American innocence died. Somehow, the families of those who perished moved on. Several thousand Federal dollars in compensation did not take away the pain but did enable dreams of a life still worth living.

Only after the settlements were made were the cries of the families in Oklahoma heard. Those families, too, suffered a terrible loss but received only speeches and sympathy.

And now there are the victims of Katrina. Not only were hundreds of family members lost but, in addition, entire businesses, lifestyles, community bonds, and the independence conferred by gainful employment were entirely obliterated. We must ask ourselves: do we deal with victims in an evenhanded manner?

The financial safety nets of insurance, high pre-trauma earnings, and safety member retirement systems, were already in place in New York. The financial largesse of the government provided an even larger buffer against the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

Most of Katrina's victims lived their lives without a single tattered safety net in place. Poor, unskilled, and underemployed, many of these Gulf Coast residents barely stayed afloat even before the flood waters raged in. Now what little they had is gone. They cannot bury their dead and get on with life as the 911 families managed to do - because there is no life left.

The political think tanks that worry if a nominee is conservative enough, the lobbyists busily grabbing the largest slice of pork for their clients, and the Haliburtons, the Fluors, and the oil magnates have no emotional conception of the reality of poverty. While difficulty in paying the bills is common at all economic levels, contrast that with someone who has no bills because they have nothing: no debts, no creditors - but also no money, no food, no home, no resources.

For those still living in shelters or staying at a hotel until the vouchers run out this month - where are the federal dollars to help them move on? The government can't even figure out how to get generators to hospitals nor trailer homes to available land.

After the photo-ops, the dramatic flyovers, and the congressional appropriation bills, our leaders will go home to their comfortable beds with easy consciences, confident that they have done what was needed. Years from now, the victims will still be suffering as are those who were displaced long ago by Hurricane Andrew.

Unless they are lucky enough to become the swing vote in a tight election, they will recede from the front pages and slowly submerge beneath the slime of poverty, a more permanent threat than any temporary storm.

How to defeat terrorism

Stopping terrorism is not like gambling, in poker there are different variables that can affect the outcome but it fighting terror the only way to win is to fight to the end.

Many people thing that the terrorist feel they have been wronged by something or someone and that giving them something will end the fight be it land or money, but history has repeatedly shown us that by appeasing the terrorists we are only giving them what they want, and prolonging the fight. They will continue to take everything they are given but they never stop wanting more.

An example of this is clear in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Israel allows the PLO to return to the west bank and Gaza and form the Palestinian Authority, Israel supplied weapons and the Americans provided training to the Palestinians so they could start a army to fight crime and terrorism.

Israel was repaid by the terrorists by suicide bombings in malls, restaurants, clubs and busses.

More recently Israel pulled all Jews from Gaza and gave all the land to the Palestinians. The Israelis left behind infrastructure and greenhouses, which could have been used for businesses by the Palestinians. The moment the last troops were out of Gaza the terrorists destroyed what the Israelis left behind and again repaid them with rockets on Sderot and Ashkelon, two Jewish cities bordering Gaza.

Many of you are thinking that these problems were brought on by the Israelis stealing Palestinians land, but what was it that the United States did that angered Al Qaeda?

Many will say it is because America has troops in Saudi Arabia where the two holiest locations to the Muslim people are, these people are wrong. This fight is not about the terrorists wanting America out of the Middle East.

This was is about the pride of one individual. Osama Bin Laden, and that’s all it is about.

In 1991 when Saddam Hussein Invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia was worried and was looking to get help to protect its oil fields. Osama Bin Laden offered his assistance to help protect his homeland with the help of his Mujahadim, who had helped protect Afghanistan from the Russians in the 80's.

But rather then gamble on Bin Laden's holey warriors, the Saudis asked for help from the United States, and this wounded Bin Laden's pride. Now Bin Laden is on a quest to show the world that he is the true protector of Islam, do not be fooled this is a war of religion.
The only thing that has ever worked is not to try to negotiate with these people but to fight them with force. You will find that with any military action against terrorists once you start to make some headway they will start to yell about a Hudna or temporary cease fire.

When you are in a poker tournament in Casinos Online or land based and your opponent is almost out of chips, do you back off and let your enemy regroup or go all in and force him out.

The Only way to defeat terrorism is to fight terrorism whenever and wherever it shows its head, and to never let up on those who would use terror to forward their goals.

Maybe We Need An Occasional Disaster!

The suffering and trauma left in the wake of last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia, our own hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the earthquake in Kashmir, and the mud slides of Central America, cannot be ignored. But none of these were man-made acts that we can attempt to eradicate, like terrorism or the brutality of tyrants.

These were natural events -- cataclysmic to be sure, but an expected by-product of life on an ever-changing and unstable planet. We can certainly improve on our ability to prepare for them, and the speed and intensity of our response to the victims, but for all our brainpower and technological sophistication, we cannot prevent their occurrence.

To emotionally cope with their aftermath, we can reframe the tragedy of events by a focus on how disasters can bring out the best in our often flawed human race.

We can look to conservative, white-only Texas towns that opened their arms, and their hearts, to poverty-stricken African Americans fleeing the floods of New Orleans.

We can stand astonished but proud at the gifts of food and shelter and support that the semi-hippies of the Rainbow Coalition brought to stricken right-wing citizens in small Mississippi towns.

We can look around a football stadium where donors stood in line to give whatever they could.

We can bow our heads in awe before the families who opened up their homes to those who had nothing left.

We can salute the volunteers who took food, water, blankets and generators to devastated areas, moving faster and with more commitment than the reluctant minions of the Federal Government.

We all lead lives rife with potentialities. It takes certain conditions, combined with inner decisions, to convert them into realities. The best of us, staring destruction, anguish, and utter desolation in the face, rise to the occasion. From banal, self-centered, unremarkable lives, we seize the chance to become more than we have been, to harness our own promise, to dare the heroic.

Disasters provide us with unique opportunities. It is not that we wish anyone pain but suffering is part of life. When it happens, it brings darkness to its victims but also the chance for fellow men to kindle a new and brighter light that enriches our species, our spirits, and our future.

What Al Qaeda Will Never Understand About The Katrina Disaster

There are rumors that Bin Laden and his minions are sitting around laughing at the spectacle of the mighty United States bungling the relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. It is certainly ironic, and would be laughable if not for the tragedy it caused, that for disasters anywhere in the world, cargo planes laden with relief supplies are in the air in a matter of hours and ships change course instantaneously to bring aid and comfort, yet it takes us more than a week to reach our own victims.

The terrorists will never see, nor ever comprehend, the real story. They have no interest in individual heroic efforts in the face of total chaos. They pay no attention to the thousands of families who are opening their homes, and their hearts, to the dazed, the poor, the dispossessed.

They chortle at destruction, whether caused by nature or their own design. But they cannot fathom the people who dig themselves out and get on with their lives: the flood victims who find a dry haven and go out to find a job; the subway riders who return to work the following day on a different train; the financial workers who move into new quarters and return to their duties; the families who grow in strength because of the horror they have endured.

The terrorists believe that America is powerful because of its military, its technology, and its wealth. They will never understand that the West’s power is in its people. They see a politically divided nation but are blind to its unity and cohesiveness as a community. They fail to appreciate that in the face of catastrophe, all Britons are Londoners, and all Americans call New Orleans home.

The anarchists’ subjugation of individual importance to their overriding cause, and their misinterpretation of religious fervor, has forever blurred their vision, concealing the rugged, optimistic, and unfailingly generous individualism that created and maintains the America we know.

And because they don’t understand us, they’ll keep on heaping terror on us, never realizing that they cannot, ever, win.

Is The End Near?

During the past year, hundreds of thousands have perished at the hands of a mother nature run amok. Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and torrential rains have served us notice that for all our brilliant achievements, we are not masters of the earth.

Those who adhere to the prophecies of the past suggest that the cataclysm of world destruction is coming, that the rapture is at hand, the end is near.

Certainly, the recent natural disasters have been extreme, eclipsing anything in living memory, but do they signify a terrible end?

The human race is now enormous, exceeding by a thousand percent the world inhabitants of the not-too-distant past. Communication is instantaneous: a boulder falls on a house and a picture is flashed around the world before the dust settles.

Consider the news in historical context, a far vaster landscape than human memory. And consider that until 100 years ago, news of events traveled slowly, if at all.

The earthquake in Kashmir claimed perhaps 40,000 valuable lives out of a planetary population of 6.4 billion souls. An earthquake in Shaanxi, China in 1556 claimed over 800,000 lives out of a contemporary population of only a few million, most of them totally unaware of the disaster.

The horrors of AIDS and the looming threat of 'flu pandemics may kill a few million of us. In 1347-1350, the Black Death wiped out over a third of Europe's population and it took 400 years to grow back to its former level. There were no news flashes or video coverage, just the word of straggling strangers of the terrors they had seen.

Think of the Ice Ages that have periodically crept across the earth's surface, wiping out hundred of species each time and forever leaving the mark of their ravages on the continents. Envision an enormous meteor crashing into our planet, leaving a killing residue of dust that blotted out the sun's rays for decades, destroying the dinosaurs that had dominated the landscape for 100,000 years of endless summer.

Our spaceship earth is a living, breathing and highly unstable vessel. It explodes, erupts, and trembles on its own timetable, far removed from the brief memories of mankind.

The forces of nature are doing what they have always done. There are just so many more of us to get in the way and so many more to bear witness to the recurring catastrophes.

Healing Anger and Violence in Our Society

I have counseled individuals, couples, families and business partners for the past 35 years and authored eight published books. All this experience has resulted in the development of a profound six-step healing process, called Inner Bonding, which anyone can learn and use throughout the day (FREE course available - see resource box).

The violence in Littleton, Colorado sparked many discussions regarding the cause of such horrifying behavior on the part of two teenage boys. I would like to address this in terms on Inner Bonding.

In my experience, it is not possible for us as human beings to be violent when we are connected to our true, core Self and to a source of spiritual guidance. When we do the work we need to do to develop a spiritually connected loving adult self, we have an inner adult who places limits on our behavior regarding harming ourselves and others.

However, it is very common in our society for people to lose touch with their true, core Self. Since our core Self holds our intrinsic feelings of compassion and empathy for others, losing touch with this aspect of ourselves may cause us to be able to harm others without feeling any pain or remorse over it. The question is, then, how do we lose our connection with our core Selves?

Many child development experts state that those people who disconnect from their empathy and compassion, generally do so between the ages of two and four. If our parents lacked empathy and compassion for our feelings and needs, we might have chosen to be caretakers and take care of their needs, or we might have chosen to become like them and not care about others' feelings and needs. We may have had no role modeling for maintaining our own inner connection. If our parents shut themselves down to our pain and their own, we may have learned to shut down to our own and others vulnerable feelings. If, in addition, we were physically, sexually, emotionally or verbally abused or neglected, we may have shut down to survive.

Some children, whose parents were shut down or abusive, manage to stay connected with their core Selves through contact with animals such as dogs or horses, while others stay connected through contact with relatives or friends with whom they identify. But many young children just disconnect to survive. When in this disconnected state, if they watch violence on TV or practice violence through video games, they may further train themselves to numb out against compassion, empathy, and the pain of harming others.

Likewise, if children grow up with no personal connection with a source of spiritual guidance, they may not know that we are all one, and they may not consider the possibility that the consequences of their actions may follow them into their lives after death.

Without connection with their core Self and their spiritual guidance, they are left with only their wounded selves. If they happen to be operating from an enraged wounded self, this self can certainly act out in angry and violent ways. With no loving inner Adult to set limits, the harm to themselves or others can be disastrous, as we have seen.

While limiting guns is certainly a good thing to do, it will not stop the violence. This violence will not stop until we no longer need to learn, as very young children, to barricade our hearts. As parents and teachers we need to be practicing a healing process such as Inner Bonding so that we can reclaim our core Selves and our deep connection with God. Only by doing our own inner work will we be able to be the loving role models that our children need. The change in our society must come from within each of us.