The Power of YES! Thinking

Some of my friends have asked why this precious blog space has been empty for more than three months.
I used this space for a week in April to bring the YES! audience closer to one of the more unique experiences in both my journalism and comedy careers. I traveled with New Old Time Chautauqua through a troubled region still suffering the effects of Hurricane Katrina some eight months after the storm.
It was an experience I’ll never forget.
Since then, I’ve focused on my work as Online Editor for a publication as different from the mass media as New Orleans is different from Baghdad. Both these cities are difficult destinations these days, both are being studied by diverse publications, but leave it to YES! to find hope in both places.
I have been a part of the YES! team for just less than a year, and I remain a practicing carnivore and continue to inflict carbon monoxide emissions on the Puget Sound atmosphere. A part of me remains a cynical newspaper reporter who covered violence on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1970’s, and a part of me wants to believe that David Korten and Joanna Macy are correct in predicting an end to 5,000 years of Empire.
Like Nobel laureate Betty Williams of Ireland, I know that certain truths are self-evident. Ms. Williams was fired into action by witnessing a horrific act of violence on the streets of Dublin. The result was a coalition of thousands of mothers and children that sought peace for troubled Northern Island. In 1977, she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Yet, she says she is not necessarily a non-violent person. This week, as she attended an Earth Dialogue in Brisbane, Australia, she was back in the news noting that “I could kill George Bush,” for what he has done to the children of Iraq.
In its declarations, the Earth Dialogues conference made clear the challenge optimists here at YES! and elsewhere face in bringing about a just and sustainable world.

1. There can be no sustainable peace while the majority of the world's population lives in poverty.
2. There can be no sustainable peace if we fail to rise to the global challenge presented by climate change.
3. There can be no sustainable peace while military spending takes precedence over human development."

As we enter a time of unprecedented tensions in the world, we all face a trial from our inner skeptic. Even our non-violent passions will be tested, just as they were for Betty Williams.
I feel better knowing that I live in an environment of optimism here at YES! Whenever I think a cynical thought, a team of my colleagues comes around to infuse me with a thought of optimism.
I no longer think violent thoughts of George W. Bush. He has, after all, done something I thought would never be possible.
He has made me think positive thoughts about Richard Nixon.