"That millions share the same forms of mental pathology does not make those people sane."
--Erich Fromm

"With Bush as president it's as if we're in a car going over the speed limit being driven by a drunk adolescent who has fallen asleep at the wheel. It's our responsibility to recognize the extreme danger of our situation and come together to do something about it, whatever that might be."
--Paul Levy

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why in the name of God weren't there hundreds of thousands of us in the streets on November 3 protesting the bogus results of the presidential election? The Ukrainians, newcomers to the principles of democracy, knew what needed to be done, and they did it. Yeah, there was some token resistance here and there around the US. But most of us sat around bitching, moaning and Googling Vancouver and New Zealand.

I went into deep hopelessness about the state of my nation and remained there for weeks. If almost 60 million members of the Bush cult want to give up their power to him and take on his twisted version of reality, screw 'em all. I'm getting the hell out of here, I imagined. And, yes, Shonnie and I are planning a trip to Costa Rica for later this year. But our departure from the US is not imminent, though I have toyed with a phrase to describe myself as "American by birth, world citizen by choice."

My sense in mid-January 2005 is that we merely went through the motions of democratically electing a president on November 2, but that the entire event was staged, the result already decided before the first vote was cast. It's been easy for me (and, I suspect, for millions of us) to feel disempowered and despondent. As Paul Levy, Jungian analyst and spiritual/political activist wrote in a recent article:

"It is shattering to realize that our grand experiment of democracy has, for the time being, failed. It is like realizing that a demon has entered into our home and it has gotten itself too deeply entrenched to be removed through the normal channels. In other words, it's not that our corrupt corporate government complex is planning to turn our country into a fascist state, it already has succeeded in doing this and most of us haven't seemed to notice.

"I see the part of myself that says, no, it can't be happening here. I see the part of me that looks away from how similar what is happening is to what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Germans who lived through that time in Germany say it was like watching one law after another subtly being changed, as their civil liberties were slowly taken away. No one stood up because everyone was still comfortable in their inertia and their denial. They were like frogs in water that was getting hotter, but they didn't even notice the changes in the temperature until it was too late, and they got boiled to death. This is our situation right now, and we the people need to realize this before it is too late."

Nonetheless Levy believes that the Bush "reelection" was an essential wakeup call for those of us who support freedom and justice.

"Demons are actually blessings in drag. It is darkest right before the dawn. Right before a demon gets vanquished is when it makes its worst destructive outburst. This is because the demon can't stand and will violently resist the light of consciousness, for to be seen de-potentiates and exorcises the demon, so to speak. Once the evil is seen, however, it loses its power and control over us, as it can no longer act itself out through us.

"We are not in a position to judge or to know God's secret intentions. It is clearly God's will that George Bush be president, as it IS what is happening. It could be that George Bush needed to get re-elected, because if John Kerry got elected, maybe people would fall back to sleep, thinking everything was O. K. I find myself imagining, however, that the evil that is enacting itself through George Bush will activate a collective awakening unimaginable before Bush came on the scene. I imagine that with George Bush as president we the people will connect with each other in lucid awareness, and tap into how we can, in real time, the present moment, creatively and collaboratively effect real change in this world of ours."

Finally Levy implores us to regard George Bush and his followers with compassion lest we become part of the evil in the world that we wish to diminish:

"If we solidify Bush as being evil and react with righteous indignation, we are guilty of the very same thing we're accusing Bush of. . . .

"Being a spiritual warrior embraces and includes the most extreme discernment, which is the ability to differentiate and is a function of seeing clearly. Discernment is different than when we are unconsciously caught in judgment, which is a reaction to and contraction against something. Wielding the wisdom of discernment is an expression of having genuine compassion.

"Compassion is sometimes fierce, though. Sometimes it says 'no,' and sets a boundary. Genuine compassion is not always smiley-faced, otherwise known as 'idiot compassion,' which just enables and reinforces asleepness. Genuine compassion is not passive. It propels us to act for the benefit of all beings. True compassion demands us to be willing to consciously step into our power, mediated through the heart, and to find the courage to speak our true voice."

The question then for those of us who are awake and aware of the danger of our current situation: What are we now willing to do to reclaim our personal power and the democracy on which our nation was founded?
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VISIT PAUL LEVY'S WEBSITE at www.awakeninthedream.com to read more of his compelling and cogent articles.

READ NOAM CHOMSKY'S THE NON-ELECTION OF 2004 at http://zmagsite.zmag.org/curTOC.htm.

"As in the past, rights will not be granted by benevolent authorities, or won by intermittent actions-a few large demonstrations after which one goes home, or pushing a lever in the personalized quadrennial extravaganzas that are depicted as 'democratic politics.' As always in the past, the tasks require day-to-day engagement to create-in part re-create-the basis for a functioning democratic culture in which the public plays some role in determining policies, not only in the political arena from which it is largely excluded, but also in the crucial economic arena, from which it is excluded in principle."
--Noam Chomsky

CELEBRATE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.'S BIRTHDAY. Check out activities nationwide at www.mlkday.org/ and locally here in Asheville at www.martinlutherkingofashevillebuncombeco.org/index2.html.

"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

NOT ONE DAMN DIME DAY. Refuse to spend any money whatsoever on Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20, 2005. For more information go to www.notonedamndime.com/boycott/.

"Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending. During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money, and don't use your credit card. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Nor toll/cab/bus or train ride money exchanges. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours."
--From the Not One Damn Dime Day website