These are exciting times for so many of us who are feeling optimistic and hopeful that the changes we have prayed for may now actually come to pass. We all knew the Bush regime was in the toilet, President elect Obama will provide the tidy bowl cleaner; now that we're getting ready to flush, what's our next step? How do we get onboard to support our new President?

Sir;... The more our democracy does not work the more the people must work for less.. If the republic were a truck, we would be spending more time pushing than driving... So let me tell you; the lesson we learn from the work we must, out of necessity waste on making this so called democracy work, is that a real democracy, exchanging a new form for an old and failed form will be an investment worth every effort we put in to it now...Primitive peoples who were without every technology, were democratic because social organization made up for the want of technology... They gave a great deal of time to government, to arriving at justice, and their words for their councils: Moots, dooms, and things have come into our language through theirs, because they were successful, and they survived... Our survival is imperiled by our want of good government... An excess of good technology cannot make up for a want of good, responsive government, able to deliver justice -because technology without government will only, and always result in a cruel slavery... Now, more than ever we need democracy... A sham democracy that has delivered us to this point where all our wealth, and all our peace has been imperiled cannot be accepted as valid... It is not valid, but a hoax.... We need democracy...Thanks...Sweeney

Well, said, Mr. Hightower, but Liz asks a good question. How do ordinary folks who want to participate in shaping the identity of this new administration get involved in a meaningful way? Helping out with campaigns is what you always hear as a way to get involved, but then what?

Re: Masako

Hightower is one of the very very few who seem to remember that it was Obama who said that change was possible if we wanted it, not that he was promising it. He placed the onus squarely on us, which, actually, is where it has always rested. We, the people, are supposed to be in charge here.

If you abdicate, you can't complain when some politico comes in and takes up the reins that you let drop.