imate for positive action appeared direct and distinctly possible.

Now, with a decidedly progressive White House, and although dysfunctional, a Congress with some vision beyond complete partisan ignorance, the forces of compassion and intelligence appear sadly inoperable, with internal strife and cross purpose debilitating the evolutionary power we collectively thought to marshal.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the way conversations wander, that shrug of the shoulder when we pause to consider the affairs of the day. Even the most dedicated are caught in the miasma of conflict, the rootedness of violence and intrigue choking attempts to clear the field and start a new way forward.

What we projected as hope and change have suffered even in small victories, as the titanic forces of the corporate military and “security” apparatus continue to bleed the abundance of our country into the net sum zero of weaponry as production, foreign occupation as policy, and the folly of empty currency that bloats the rich and impoverishes the mass.

How to gain a footing when opportunities for cooperative action are shrouded by an atmosphere of fear, mistrust and the gross opportunism of those hidden forces who wield the levers of power?

The awareness that may be our best starting point is the growing realization that the demand to do must be preceded by a clearer understanding of who we must be if changes in our culture and body politic are to find effect.

The kind of people we are determines the form of our expression and since the slaying of our young king John Fitz back in the dim past of the 1960s, the descending path of shadow government and immoral order have drained the productivity of our nation and cemented a direction that eventually led to the last tortuous presidency and the insanity the powers that be enshrined as the global war on terror.

Right wing vitriolic talking points such as “taking back our country” combine with a mentality of violence directed against “other,” railing against failures to protect our constitution while supporting tyrants, corruption and systemic violence abroad. The demagogic code language and thinly veiled intent to do harm flushed horrifically into the open this week with a brilliant Congresswoman shot down in Tucson and a well respected Federal Judge assassinated.

In order to gain resolve these times demand we be aware of the field in which we act, yet also form clear thought and intention if our desire to recreate and shape anew is not to be dissolved in the strangling miasma of corruption and cultural bigotry.

Our national history is a braid of blight and virtue, noble action and violent oppression. It is neither one story nor the other but a mixture, the product of opposing forces in an ongoing struggle to shape a nation of very different people into unified purpose.

With the confusing issues of the day an older “story” may be calling, one that is not the linear stroke of industrial piston but a looping path like our once great rivers, the understanding that the best way to travel is often not in a straight line, that the variety and texture of our land and people must be respected and appreciated if we are to progress toward an enlightened future.

This poem may serve such a direction, beginning a new year and new site for Vantage Point, to meander if you will, speaking to the Ancient Faith we might share, gathering the force and power of who we are as we enter the many struggles and opportunities of who we are yet to be.

In that high room long ago

we looked to a range of snow capped peaks,

over the green valley and running river

toward a future we would enter;

the broad strokes were clearly drawn

though without detail or definition.

We didn’t ponder or debate

but looked with the eyes of the heart,

letting the breadth of imagination rise and fill

like the broad sail of a mighty ship,

the wind of our passion oceanic,

our internal fire coal red and burning.

Remember that time and place

as we look across the leaf strewn street,

sky filled with rain clouds rushing to the mountain,

the present path faint, without clear markings,

yet deep within a distant light,

then like turning a page in a book unwritten

we call on all who walked before us,

taking the next step into the unknown

with all the ardor ancient faith allows.

vantagepointdh.com/

Jan. 15, 2011