THE SOUNDING CALL 245

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“THE MAKINGS OF A PRESIDENT:
PORTRAIT OF THE LEADER WE
SO DESPERATELY NEED.”

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 THE SOUNDING CALL 247

WISDOM PRESS
A Division of Inspiring Revolutions, LLC
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Copyright © by Todd Levinson

All rights reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations within other
literary works.
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition, 2008

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Levinson, Todd
The makings of a president: portrait of the leader we so desperately
need/Todd Levinson.–1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-9796621-2-6 (pbk.)
2007910399

Edited by Bess Reed Currence

Cover designed by Brandon P. Alms
Author Photograph by Linnet Tan

www.inspiringrevolutions.com
To the best of your life and this world
 THE SOUNDING CALL 249

Contents
PROLOGUE: Framing the Portrait 1
THE PURPOSE 5
A NEW BRAVE WORLD 14
THE FABRIC OF A NATION 19
THE REFLECTION OF REPRESENTATION 21

SECTION ONE: A Point

ONE: Defining the Portrait 33
WHAT IS A LEADER? 35
THE POINT OF A PYRAMID 41
WHAT A PICTURE IS WORTH 45
TWO: The One Truth 50
INDIVIDUALITY AND UNITY 51
THE POINT IS THE PURPOSE 58
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING 62
THREE: Interests: The Problem and the Solution 71
EXPANSION GONE AWRY 75
BLINDED TO THE WORLD OF PLENTY 78

SECTION TWO: The Color of Character

FOUR: The Power of a Name 91
A HEAD WITHOUT A HEART 92
INSPIRATION AND COMPASSION 95
“REAL” AUTHENTICITY 98
THE OTHER MIND 108
LEADING BY LEARNING THROUGH LISTENING 110
FIVE: Outlining the Portrait 117
THE PRINCIPLE SPLIT 117
PARADOXICAL PRINCIPLE-ISM 124
THE KEY TO LIFE 128
SIX: Master of the Top 138
PRIDEFUL HUMILITY 138
SIMPLE COMPLEXITIES 157
SEVEN: An Inclusive Negotiator 164
THE SEAT OF IMPARTIALITY 165
 THE COURAGE OF VULNERABILITY 169
THE RENEWAL OF FORGIVENESS 172
AN EXPANDED SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY 175
EIGHT: The Power of a Promise 184
EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT 185
THE REALITY OF NOW 188
THE TEST OF A PROMISE 190
THE IMPERFECTION OF A PROMISE 194

SECTION THREE: The Final Touch

NINE: Policy for a Change 203
TIME FOR A POLICY 205
FIRST DEPENDENCE, THEN INDEPENDENCE 210
AN IMPERFECT DECISION 217
TEN: Brought to Completion 228
INTEGRITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 228
PERSISTENT FLEXIBILITY 229
EPILOGUE: The Sounding Call 244
 THE SOUNDING CALL 251

SAMPLE ONE

PROLOGUE

Framing the Portrait

P
eople flock to the stage, crowd around their televisions, and
glue their ears to the radio. They wait in anticipation – some
with anxiety – to see the image, to hear that voice that will
set the nation‟s new direction. Their leader rises to the stage, firmly
grasps the sides of the podium, and addresses the nation with a
power that only the people could grant and with words that plant a
seed of ideals that will grow into a new society for years to come.
The people have made their choice. Or have they?
Choice. It is a freedom that, for centuries, we have argued for
and fought to uphold, a right that gives us a potential that only we
can make actual, a power that enables us to determine the course
and quality of our lives. But are we really free to choose? If so, do
we actually use this freedom? And if we use it, with what sense of
responsibility, by what principles, and through what actions do we
apply it to choosing our leaders?
Leaders have a broad and profound impact on our lives. They
do not choose our lives for us, but their decisions are key to build-
ing the social framework we live within. They create our rules and
set our direction, and in doing so they also help build the structure
that surrounds us and thus partially defines how we live. At times,
that structure supports us. Other times, it restricts us. It can include
possibility for all or exclude possibilities for some. But when it is
restrictive and exclusionary for too long and for too many people,
the structure eventually falls and a new one must be built. We call
this process “evolution.” In fact, life is an ongoing progression of
evolution through revolution, and right now we are at the brink of
societal changes that will significantly alter our national direction,
the rules that govern that direction, and the structure that supports
it – making our choice of our leader more momentous than it has
ever been in our lifetimes.
To notice the tides of change shifting, you only have to look
at the issues we are currently confronting: wealth, health, housing,
education, energy, international relations, and individual freedom
are all aspects of society that have become increasingly restrictive,
divisive, unequal, and volatile. They have also become pressing
topics because they get right to the heart of the national and global
imbalances that we will have to remedy to avert the kinds of crises
that will result if we remain complacent in our old ways.
This book is a call for change from those ways, focusing spe-
cifically on how we will choose our next national leader. With the
presidential election approaching, tensions and expectations have
been rising because we understand that we hold in our hands the
ability to choose a national direction that will either significantly
exacerbate our problems or resolve them by changing our course
at a time when we are at a critical crossroads…

Knowledge is potential power because it opens our freedom to

make conscientious and effective choices. The more we know, the
greater we trust our decisions and actions. As a result, we become
more involved. And now is certainly the time to become more in-
volved. So do you want to know what makes a leader effective and
what a leader‟s true purpose is? With so much information now at
your disposal, would you like the process of choosing our leader to
be clearer and more straightforward? When you vote, do you want
to feel more certain you are making the right choice? Do you want
 THE SOUNDING CALL 253

your voice to be heard, your interests to matter, and your ideals to

be represented?
Your voice can‟t be heard if you don‟t know what to say; your
interests won‟t matter if you don‟t know what they are; and your
ideals can‟t be represented if you don‟t represent them yourself. So
choose to be more aware, not just of politics, but of life as a whole
because you cannot understand leadership without understanding
life. To support you in that understanding, this book is about life
and leadership, exploring how they relate and how they affect the
progress of our nation and the overall state of our world.
Nations will always have issues to resolve. Building a society
that works for everyone is no simple feat. But our collective issues
become urgent when we have swept them under the rug and used
Band-aid solutions for too long. Soon, the issues of our nation and
the whole of our global world will be coming to a head. What will
we have to confront? A growing gap between the rich and the poor;
our healthcare system‟s limited and shrinking reach; Social Secu-
rity‟s possible if not likely collapse; immense imbalances in global
trade; financial volatilities waiting to crash; education‟s failure to
keep pace with a new world; the rise of global warming; war over
resources; conflicts over ideals; nuclear proliferation; and an over-
all growing distrust in the world – between and within our nations.
These issues are not new. They represent timeless problems of
a world that we are constantly trying to understand so we can live
the way we desire. But just because these issues are timeless does
not mean we will always possess the time we want for developing
solutions. There are times in life when we have avoided declining
conditions for too long, and the time for action becomes now – to
sink or swim, fall or fly, collapse or create. We are currently at that
time. We must decide our fate…
In the pages ahead, your leader, your life, your nation, and your
world will come together into a picture you can clearly understand,
personally relate to, and confidently act on. This is a book of ques-
tions in search of answers about what it means to be a leader, what
we need in a leader, and how to choose a leader. It offers potential
answers, but more importantly, it challenges you to come to your
own. My answers are no better than yours; yours are no better than
mine. They are simply different. And in our differences, we must
find the strength and courage to unite so that together we can paint
a portrait of the leader we so desperately need.
 THE SOUNDING CALL 255

SAMPLE TWO

THE REFLECTION OF REPRESENTATION

Look in a mirror. In that glass panel before you, you see your-
self. It might not be a self you can touch, or one you can talk with,
but it is still a representation of you and how you are perceived by
the outside world. This reflection doesn‟t only display the surface
qualities of your physical appearance – your size and proportions,
the color of your skin, or the style of your hair. It also shows the
emotions behind your mannerisms, the history that‟s molded your
skin, and the vision behind your eyes. Through the “whole” of this
reflection, you consciously and unconsciously can see the whole
of “you” – in body, in mind, in heart, and in soul.
Now take a look at your leader, the one who stands atop your
nation‟s political hierarchy. There, too, you find your reflection, a
symbol of what you support and oppose, who you love and hate,
what you desire and reject, and who you have come to be or not to
be. Many writers explain how a group is a reflection of its leader.
It is equally true that a leader reflects her group, representing what
each of its members insists on and accepts. Many of us are used to
blaming leadership for our collective problems. We see the effects
of our collective decisions and actions, and then we claim that our
leaders are the only ones making those decisions and taking those
actions. We must keep our leaders accountable. But if we believe
that they should represent us, we must own our part of the respon-
sibility for how they do it. In fact, the very idea that we must keep
them accountable speaks to our responsibility. A leader cannot be
a leader without her nation‟s support. We give her legitimacy. We
must hold her accountable. We are the true leaders. She just stands
in our place, uniting all our expressions into a single voice. She is
there to help us shine. As Lao-Tzu once wrote, “A leader is best
when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people
obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor
people, they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks
little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say,
„We did this ourselves‟”…

Whether we do so knowingly or unknowingly,

with awareness and action or ignorance and neglect,
we create our leaders through our choices…

The purpose of creating this frame before delving into issues

of leadership is to get to the heart of what democracy really means.
The rise of democracy has coincided with an understanding of the
vital role that “We the People” must play in creating a society. But
if we want to live in a “real” democracy, we will have to take more
responsibility for that democracy. If a democracy is of the people,
by the people, and for the people, then “the people” are important.
That is you, me, and everyone else around us. We cannot demand
what we want without becoming what we want. That is hypocrisy,
and hypocrisy will ultimately never lead us to what we desire for
our lives and nation. If you want freedom, learn to become free. If
you want peace, create it with others. If you want love, then learn
to love with all your heart, especially when it is most challenging...

The first section of this book begins with what it means to be a

leader. It explores life‟s purpose, society‟s purpose, and how they
influence your leader‟s purpose. It covers core life principles like
truth and progress, explaining how they determine the direction of
a nation and dictate your leader‟s role. From this point of view, we
then examine what the ideal relationship between a leader and her
people should be in order to effectively create their desired nation.
 THE SOUNDING CALL 257

With your leader‟s purpose clearly understood, the second sec-

tion covers how to determine that your leader is “right” for the job.
A leader may know her purpose, but that doesn‟t mean she knows
how to fulfill it. You will learn to evaluate whether your leader has
the mental capacity, emotional strength, and courage to act in ways
that an effective leader should, also determining what that actually
is: What does it mean to think, feel, and behave like a leader? Not
only will you come to understand the character that is needed, but
you will also answer questions that put your leaders to the ultimate
test: Do they really have what it takes when it comes down to the
definitive evaluation – their actions and results?
Overall, this book‟s activities are meant to inspire you to think
deeply, study thoroughly, and understand clearly more about what
your candidates truly represent. Because you probably won‟t have
an opportunity to ask them direct questions, you might not always
have easy access to the full answers that you want. But our world
is now full of resources we previously never had, giving us access
to an extensive supply of information about what candidates have
said and done over time. Use today‟s technology to become more
informed and know your candidates. Also realize that, through this
book, you will learn how to go beyond simple knowledge in order
to understand them more deeply – to recognize what is being said
behind their words and actions. Here, we are not as concerned with
the facts about your leaders but are instead more focused on what
the facts really say about them.
And so, after turning the following page, you will find a list of
twenty-four character traits that are central to the role of a leader.
First, you will come to understand these traits. Then, you will use
them to evaluate the candidates and determine who you believe is
most able to lead your nation into a new world. Glance over them
now so that they become familiar because, at the end of many of
the activities ahead, you will be rating your candidates using these
traits on a scale from “deficient” to “sufficient” to “proficient”…
 Evaluate Your Candidates
 ONENESS OF VISION (THE TRUTH OF ONE)
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 SUPPORTS INDIVIDUALITY
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 SUPPORTS UNITY
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 INSPIRATION
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 COMPASSION
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 AUTHENTICITY (TRUSTWORTHY IN WORDS)

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 TRUE LISTENING &LEARNING

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 PARADOXICAL PRINCIPLE-ISM
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 PRIDEFUL HUMILITY
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 INTEGRATIVE MIND
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 INCLUSIVE NEGOTIATOR
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 IMPARTIAL NEGOTIATOR
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 THE SOUNDING CALL 259

 VULNERABLE COURAGE
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 MUTUAL FORGIVENESS
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 EXPANDED RESPONSIBILITY
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 REALISTIC PROMISES
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 OPTIMISTIC PROMISES
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE CYCLES

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE DEVELOPMENT

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 SACRIFICIAL DESIRES
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 INTEGRITY (TRUSTWORTHY IN ACTIONS)

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 ACCOUNTABILITY (TRUSTWORTHY IN RESULTS)

__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

 PERSISTENT FLEXIBILITY
__
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 This book is meant to challenge you because, if you finish still
thinking, feeling, and acting the same way as when you began, the
book will have added nothing substantial to your life. You will not
find value in what you read unless you are willing to change. So,
along the way, stay firm in who you are while also being open to
what you might not yet know.
Finally, you might have noticed I will be using the word “she”
as the pronoun for your leader. The purpose is not necessarily as a
proclamation that female leaders are preferable to male ones. It is
also not a support for a specific candidate or any kind of angry or
resentful rebellion against the mostly patriarchal establishments of
our world. It is just a change to find a balance from what has been.
And this world is clearly changing in search of a balance. But we
can only really find that balance in the space of…
 THE SOUNDING CALL 261

SAMPLE THREE

WHAT A PICTURE IS WORTH

Most of us have come across the idea that a picture is worth a

thousand words. But why is this so? With an image, we have the
ability to bring a lot of information together and see it all at once.
Vision is unifying. We have the ability to capture in one instant, in
a single glance, a wealth of details that would take infinitely longer
to express through a series of words.

An image unites what our language has separated into words.

A leader must have a “vision” that is worth even more than a

thousand words. It must encompass a whole nation. If the bottom
of a pyramid represents the masses of people, the point at the top
is the vision unifying them. That is one of the reasons why there is
an eye at the top of the pyramid on the dollar bill. It represents the
vision of the “all-seeing” eye. (It has also been linked to the Eye of
Horus, the Egyptian god who was said to be the son of Osiris and
Isis. As there are in many other systems, these two gods represent
prime expressions of male and female, making Horus a product of
union and a symbol of bringing things together. He has also been
represented by a falcon who flies high and “sees it all” from above
– much like the uppermost point of the pyramid.)
The ability to unify a whole nation of individual visions into a
single collective vision helps a leader channel her nation‟s energy
in a focused direction toward a common, desired destiny. Imagine
electricity flowing from each citizen. A leader must conduct that
electricity to one united point. That point is the top of a pyramid.
It is a nation‟s vision, pointing toward something higher, a united
purpose that comes from and through the people. And at this time,
with inequalities widening and conflicts rising within our nation
and across the globe, we now need a united vision more than ever.
Together, we must point our heads toward something higher. Our
national institutions, as we currently know of them, are currently
dissolving because they do not support the individual expression
or collective unification of the people who make those institutions
“alive.” But as they break down, a new potential will open to our
nation and world, and we must grasp that potential and support its
development into the creation of a new society in a new world.
The coming years may be more volatile and uncertain than we
have known in our lifetimes. What we have learned to depend on,
the social systems and structures that have become so familiar and
have brought us this far, cannot help us brave the new evolution of
what it will mean to be a society. New life is always that way. We
will have to remake ourselves to better ourselves. And yet with all
we have learned through the attempts of prior generations to build
a progressive, united society, we can certainly rebuild our systems
into a social structure even more progressive and united than the
ones preceding it. Our leader will not be the determining factor of
our new life because she is only one part of the body. But she will
be a focal point for how our individual creative energies will come
together and bring life to our new society as well as how we then
choose to use that life to create new social institutions of health,
of wealth, of education, of security, and of all the other parts that
comprise any form of life. You are essential to this process. You
must bring your unique sense of life to the new puzzle that we are
creating. So you must be part of painting this portrait of the leader
we so desperately need…
 THE SOUNDING CALL 263

SAMPLE FOUR

The purpose of this activity was to realize that interests can be

complementary instead of conflicting - within yourself, within your
nation, and in the world - so that you can believe in its possibility,
so that you can plan and act toward its eventuality, and ultimately,
so that we can all choose to unite and create instead of conflict and
destroy. When we can see and believe in the possibility of working
together in a mutually beneficial and mutually supportive way, we
can also open to the fact that others‟ interests are not just as impor-
tant as our own, but are also essential to our own. This knowing is
only the beginning of what it will take to live in and help create a
united, stable, supportive, progressive, and productive society.
This is a dream. But it is not some pipe dream. It is a realistic
dream. And it is also a necessary dream.

A dream is an image that captures future possibilities. When

those possibilities are necessities for our current reality, they
become inevitabilities. But they still need our progressive
thoughts, courageous emotions, and effective actions to
actually become realities.

Our leader must not stop at simply allowing us to dream. She must
inspire us to dream and move us to commit to those dreams while
also supporting the dreams of others. Once we embrace this way of
living, the rest are just details that we must discover and institute as
we keep learning about life. That is the dream of the Truth of One.
And eventually, it will be realized. What kind of leader will help
us brave this path? What details will fill in our portrait?...
 SAMPLE FIVE

The communication between our heads and our bodies reflects

the same that exists between a leader and her nation. A leader may
speak of grand, important ideas, but she will not move her nation
into motion without emotion. And the movement of her nation is
of utmost significance. The head accomplishes nothing. The body
accomplishes everything. The head just helps in setting a direction
and creating the policies that give the best opportunity for the body
to succeed in its doings.
Similarly, our leader will not fix our wealth gap long term. But
We the People can. She will not balance trade with China. But We
the People can. She will not improve relations with Iraq and Iran.
But We the People can. How so? By who we are, what we do, and
how we hold her accountable to our popular will. And that is most
likely to happen through communications filled with the power of
emotion. When our leader communicates with emotion, we can be
moved. When we communicate to her with emotion, we can move
her. And if that connection of influence is cut, our relationship is
lost…

We do not want a leader who simply tells us what we desire to

hear. Just like a salesperson who cares nothing about her product,
cares nothing about her customer, and cares only about the end of
the transaction, a leader who plays to our interests instead of really
believing in, caring about, and supporting our interests is bound to
fail as our leader because she is practicing unethical manipulation.
She is trying to receive our support without a true commitment to
give support. And while this leader may really want to believe in,
care about, and support our interests, wanting to think, feel, and do
something is different from actually thinking, feeling, and doing it.
 THE SOUNDING CALL 265

Wanting only creates a potential, a hopeful wish supported by

passivity. True desire creates a drive that moves you to make
a potential real. Commitment then creates the persistence to
actually make it real.

Once we have chosen our leader, we don‟t want her to only be

a potential leader, who might potentially embody and uphold the
Truth of One, who might potentially support our individuality and
unity. We want the “real deal,” an actual leader who can actually
be the person she needs to be to fulfill her leadership role. Authen-
ticity is key to knowing if we can trust a leader to do this. So what
are the signs of authenticity? Generally, it is vulnerability.
Will she rise above the shame of her imperfections, the fear of
not saying the right thing, the deceit that comes from seeing others
as a means to a personal mission (or even a personal version of our
collective mission), and the prideful judgment of elitism? Can she
get beyond saying what we want to hear and not only speak of the
possibilities that exist in society but also of the challenges that we
face in creating those possibilities? Can she be truthful about our
current limitations and how they affect our pie-in-the-sky visions,
while also believing we can have that pie-in-the-sky if we unite in
the One Truth? Is she willing and able to be that vulnerable in her
honesty with both herself and her nation‟s people… Can you meet
this standard in your life? Do your potential leaders display it in
their own lives? They will not be perfect, but they can be honest
about their imperfections (often a sign of authenticity), and they
must be ready. So are they?

We cannot be wrong if we never think we are right.

 SAMPLE SIX

Conflicts are certain to surface within any relationship because

we are each imperfect and we are all different. But that is where we
learn. In and through our conflicts, we meet and reconcile with the
sources of our ignorance, indifference, and resistance. Our leader,
through her dedication to inclusion and union, can help us resolve
the conflicts in our societal relationships by helping us bridge the
gaps between the fragments of our individual psyches…

Our leader must tend to all sides of all issues and work to help
unite them. She must understand and know how to handle the vo-
latility she might encounter and know that by taking both sides she
might also be the object of their projected wrath. When we are ex-
periencing deep, profound, and hurtful emotions, we instinctively
tend to link the cause of our pain to something or someone around
us and project our response at that illusory cause. In those kinds
of moments, we feel the need to express our emotions, but some-
times we don‟t know how. We want things to change but may not
have the presence of mind to see the situation clearly. So we might
lash out at an easy target, believing that anyone who could possi-
bly take a different position from our own is an enemy of our in-
terests and is deserving of whatever kind of punishment will help
“put them straight.” And yet our perceived enemies are really our
most important allies because they are different from us. While we
may not see it at first, their differences are always complementary
and will therefore be quite helpful in the end.
Our leader, our head, must help us see this reality. She must be
a courageous teacher who serves as a role model of the power that
exists in Oneness by inspiring us to embrace and fulfill our unique
sense of individuality while urging us toward the synergy of unity.
She cannot shy from disapproval. She cannot fear being hurt. She
 THE SOUNDING CALL 267

cannot avoid the uncertainty of change and the unpredictability of

human choice. She cannot promise what she cannot deliver. She
must be honest about our world‟s current limitations and about the
sacrifices we must all make for one another…
In her courageous stance, she does not stand for or against any
single person, group, principle, or party. She is for all. And so, just
as day and night have learned to give way to each other, she must
guide her people to give way too, understanding that giving way
does not mean giving up. It means giving life to receive life, giving
liberty to receive liberty, giving leadership to receive leadership,
and giving love to receive love. Life, liberty, leadership, and love.
We can have it all. But we must earn it all. And we must do it to-
gether.
The negotiation from conflict into union is not an easy path. It
is filled with our many entanglements of attachment, land mines of
repressed pain, and ditches of ignorance. If our leader can sustain
her courage while being authentically open and humbly impartial,
if she can exude the kind of compassion that validates our sense of
self and guides us to feel safe and secure because of knowing that
someone is behind us, and if she can inspire us beyond our current
sense of self in order to live out our greatness by living for some-
thing greater, then she will earn our trust, respect, and commitment
to the higher purpose of society: the Truth of One…
 SAMPLE SEVEN

THE RENEWAL OF FORGIVENESS

Over the years, we have wronged each other many times over.
Sometimes it is intentional, sometimes unintentional. Sometimes it
is excessive, sometimes to a smaller to degree. We have done it in
many different ways, and no person, nation, or culture possesses a
past that is completely free from having triggered another‟s pain.
We have all hurt and been hurt. So what shall we do? What is the
solution? Shall we fight over who was hurt worst of all? Shall we
fight over who was most justified? Do we seek to perpetuate this
cycle of retaliation and destruction, only extending our hurts and
resentments further? Shall we hold onto our pain out of spite and
for revenge, when those pains hurt the holder more than the giver?
When will it to end? Do we want it to end? Will we like the end if
we continue down our current path? Or if we have all done wrong
before and will all most probably do wrong again, shall we decide
to become part of a solution instead of a continuation of the prob-
lem and forgive and learn so that we can make a new turn?...

People are not their actions. People take actions. And actions
can change when people change. If people can change, then
they are never who we think they are now. All definitions, all
labels of identity, are eventually overturned…

It is certainly one of the greatest challenges in life to rise above

your pain in order to understand, trust, and forgive someone who
factored into that pain. But it is also necessary for moving forward
from past destruction into future creation. Our leader‟s inspiration
for the potential of each individual, her compassion for their needs
and feelings, her humble acceptance of their principles, her impar-
 THE SOUNDING CALL 269

tial embracing of their interests, and her courage to stand firmly in

the line of fire as a model and conductor of individual expression
that combines into creative union are all parts of our leader‟s role
as a teacher who can guide us beyond judgment; they are keys that
unlock the door to forgiveness; and they are points that can focus
us together into unity. She can still maintain her passion while pur-
suing peace. In fact, if she does not stand firmly in forgiveness, her
firmness will sprout more from anger than passion (because anger
is passion‟s sibling).
Without full and forever forgiveness, no negotiation will ever
last. Old patterns in our relationships and past resentments of hurt
will eventually surface when not resolved, and they will take down
any superficial agreements we have made. Our leader must help us
past the emotional hurdles blocking our way to individual and col-
lective progress – for the causes of life, liberty, and our pursuit of
happiness. But leading others into forgiveness cannot be done un-
less you have forgiven yourself.
 SAMPLE EIGHT

Polices are about change. They are about guiding us from de-
pendence to independence into the union of interdependence. To-
gether, we embody the United States of America. But our nation‟s
economic, political, and social structures can only be as strong as
the actual union we have established within our national structure.
The weaker our union, the weaker our nation will be. The United
Nations was developed under the same premise. But its strength is
also only a reflection of how truly united the world‟s nations are.
We have a vested interest in these bodies, just as a cell has a vested
interest in its body and world. If we discover and follow The Truth
of life in general and The Truth as it exists right now, we can find
the solution to our problems and the way to our desires. But if we
look only at our own interests and are unwilling to see the benefit
of a needed sacrifice, we will miss The Truth and our policies will
lead to destruction. We live and die by our choices, and our choic-
es can either be based on our ignorance or based on The Truth.
Our choice of a leader is a symbolic choice for our nation. It is
even more so now because we are at the brink of a total change in
our world. It will occur regardless of our choices, yet how it occurs
will have everything to do with our choices. And it is not only our
choices to dream, think, and feel that will shape our future world,
but also our choice to act. Our leader must act. With this last piece
of the puzzle, our portrait of the leader we so desperately need is…
 THE SOUNDING CALL 271

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