United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Two sets of remarks posted by a little-known blogger suggest the deep currents that Barack Obama is reaching in the American soul. -- The first, posted on Jan. 8, stated that "The Obama miracle is the miracle of healing. Obama is not black or white. Obama transcends race by mixing it up so finely that you can’t tell where white ends and black begins. He also mixes up right and left so that you can’t tell where Democrat ends and Republican begins. He even mixes up Christian and Muslim. -- Obama’s central message is an awakening message, the call to action now, not tomorrow; the vote is now, not next November; the decision is now, not when we are ready. Obama’s electricity is direct current, not an alternating current that swings between the past and the future. His call is to rise up now because there is no more time because time has been our obstacle, time has been our illusion. America is now, not tomorrow. Race is an illusion, always has been, always will be. A vote for Obama is a vote for wholeness, and wholeness is always already now. Healing will never come unless we vote for it, personally and collectively. Healing never comes in time. Healing is always now. Obama’s message is both personal and collective at the same time because Obama transcends time by pulling all our fragments into one whole."[1] -- The second set of remarks, posted a few days ago, expressed sentiments even more exalted: "Obama’s rhetoric creates the space where his speech, not the content of it, but the speech itself is the messenger. Martin Luther King did that, as we all know, and his speeches even now can send chills up your spine. -- That chill, that shiver, that loss of remembrance over what was actually said is a sign that a connection is being made beneath the surface of the rational mind, that a hand is being extended under the table, so to speak, and the core of our being is touched. -- Our culture, our modern consciousness is all about content, like cards on a gaming table, and we spend our waking hours focused on the cards being turned over each moment: red card, black card, what’s on top, what’s beneath? Obama puts our focus on the game and not the cards, on the medium and not the content. And so we meet with him in that space beside the gaming table and look with him at the game we have been lost in. 'Don’t you think it’s time we stopped,' he quietly says. And we realize that the ability to see the whole game, both sides at once, is stopping the game — and we are suddenly free. -- That is Obama!"[2] ...

I can’t get enough of this guy and what’s happening in America. It’s like having a dysfunctional family member suddenly rises up after a decade of paralysis, stretch and say, “Okay, I‘m ready to go to work.”

America’s paralysis has been race, and that divide goes back to our very roots when the first slaves were brought to Jamestown. We have all wanted to be over this sickness, but if only we had more time. We will get over it, our best thoughts say, but only in the future. We need more time.

Obama says no. The time is now. This moment, this vote, this now, not tomorrow’s now. The Obama miracle is the miracle of healing. Obama is not black or white. Obama transcends race by mixing it up so finely that you can’t tell where white ends and black begins. He also mixes up right and left so that you can’t tell where Democrat ends and Republican begins. He even mixes up Christian and Muslim.

Obama’s central message is an awakening message, the call to action now, not tomorrow; the vote is now, not next November; the decision is now, not when we are ready. Obama’s electricity is direct current, not an alternating current that swings between the past and the future. His call is to rise up now because there is no more time because time has been our obstacle, time has been our illusion. America is now, not tomorrow. Race is an illusion, always has been, always will be. A vote for Obama is a vote for wholeness, and wholeness is always already now. Healing will never come unless we vote for it, personally and collectively. Healing never comes in time. Healing is always now. Obama’s message is both personal and collective at the same time because Obama transcends time by pulling all our fragments into one whole.

So, folks, I can’t get enough of Obama, because the vote -- as he is framing it with his very person -- is life’s always present choice to get off our couch of dreams and live.

After reading a piece on Obama’s rhetoric, Marshall McLuhan’s claim comes to mind: The Medium is the Message. Obama’s critics and doubters all say the words are great but “where’s the beef?” Where’s the message, Hillary wants to know.

Quotes are from the article by Jack Shaffer, the rhetoric professor who “cracked the Obama code”:

"Obama’s grand rhetoric did, however, win him 90 percent of the black vote and 52 percent of the white vote in the Virginia primary this week. Voters might not know what he said, but they have a good idea of what he means.

"His rhetoric is designed to bridge the space between whites and blacks so they can occupy a place where common principles reside and the 'transcendent value of justice,' as Frank writes, can be shared.

"The bonus point for Obama is that by calling for unity, he can also subtly reject the identity politics that have crippled the Democratic Party.

"As the candidate who prides himself on disagreeing without being disagreeable, Obama takes on a Christ-like quality for lots of people, especially white people.

"Obama’s national narrative notes both Roosevelt's before calling on Martin Luther King Jr. and, as everybody knows, Ronald Reagan. The implication, of course, is that the Obama candidacy stands as the fulfillment of the American ideal, and by casting their ballot for him, voters can participate in that transcendent moment. It’s a dizzying notion.

"In his speeches, Obama pretends to be a hero out of Joseph Campbell. He talks about being on a journey that is about more than just hope and change."

So let me add my two cents. ”Christ-like quality” and “Joseph Campbell” are two references which really push my buttons, as anyone who reads my column will note. But what does medium over content mean? Basically, what Obama is saying, not by words, but by his person is: I am the beef.

No one can say that without being crucified, either 2000 years ago or now. When anyone says, “I am the messenger,” you can be sure that they are not. But Obama’s rhetoric creates the space where his speech, not the content of it, but the speech itself is the messenger. Martin Luther King did that, as we all know, and his speeches even now can send chills up your spine.

That chill, that shiver, that loss of remembrance over what was actually said is a sign that a connection is being made beneath the surface of the rational mind, that a hand is being extended under the table, so to speak, and the core of our being is touched.

Our culture, our modern consciousness is all about content, like cards on a gaming table, and we spend our waking hours focused on the cards being turned over each moment: red card, black card, what’s on top, what’s beneath? Obama puts our focus on the game and not the cards, on the medium and not the content. And so we meet with him in that space beside the gaming table and look with him at the game we have been lost in. “Don’t you think it’s time we stopped,” he quietly says. And we realize that the ability to see the whole game, both sides at once, is stopping the game -- and we are suddenly free.

One more thing (I just can’t seem to stop). That reference to the Christ-like figure: What is a Christ-like figure? Well, Christ stood outside of our gaming table and said, “Don’t you think it’s time to stop?” And what was the game he didn’t play and wanted us to see? The game man’s divided consciousness plays with God. We sit at the table of the mind playing cards with God, and of course, we never win because life never will deal a perfect hand forever. So Christ says, “Stand here with me in the Kingdom of Heaven and look at this hell game you are playing in your mind. There is no sin, there is no guilt, there is no division; you are already free. Believe this and you will stop playing by the act of directly seeing.”

One last thing, in reference to Joseph Campbell’s journey of the hero: if Obama ever believes that he is the message instead of the instrument for the message, then he and those who vote for him will miss the mark. The razor’s edge that he must walk is that thin line between doubting his message and believing he is the message. If he can remain empty and just whistle the tune that is being given to him, then we can all dance into a new day in America.

And just so with us. We must hold two opposites at the same time. That is our razor’s edge: to see and feel the transcendent and the immanent in the same form, to see the divine as wholly other and wholly this at the same time, and to believe totally, and, at the same time, to know that one could be wrong -- and that this would be okay. I think Reagan framed it as “Trust but verify.”