A friend on MySpace asked me why I have such a strong interest in politics, and simultaneously stated that given the state of the world, politics has not been her favorite topic of late.  This was my answer and it seemed valuable enough to pass around.

I have a passion for politics.  Though it's not so much politics itself that gets me going as it is the issues and the various interactions that come from them.  I'm a passionate believer in fighting for what you stand for (this is no great wonder - my mother's family fought on both sides of the Revolutionary War) and the only way to see something done is to do it yourself.  I very strongly feel that people in this country have forgotten how to think with both mind and heart; that there are too many angry Americans who feel entitled to THEIR concept of what America should be regardless of the pursuit of anyone else's happiness.  I don't advocate simply stating "This is the way it should be and therefore will be" because it doesn't answer the fundamental need of the human mind to deeply understand its own situation.  Barack Obama is doing EXACTLY the right thing - his grassroots campaign is getting people to think again, to start looking at things in different ways and with different goals.  The most basic, fundamental thing that we need in this country is a paradigm shift and while Bush has been the catalyst for that shift in social conscience, Obama is the one that's defining it and giving it direction.  

Besides... Politics is just the name we use for something that describes the mechanism of the socio-cultural world in which every single on of us dwells at some level.  To shy away from it is to deny the very thing that defines the heights (but not necessarily the pinnacle) of a society's philosophy.

My head is connected to my neck which is connected to my shoulders which is connected to my arms which are connected to my torso which is connected to my hips which are connected to my thighs which are connected to my knees which are connected to my shins which are connected to my ankles which are connected to my feet.

My sight is connected to my hearing which is connected to my sense of smell which is connected to my sense of touch, for if one of these things fails the others become stronger.

My mind is connected to my heart which are connected to my soul.

These parts sum up my being which is connected to my friends and my neighborhood which are connected to their friends and their neighborhoods which are connected to the city which is connected to the county which is connected to the district which is connected to the state which is connected to the country which is connected to all other countries which are a part of the world which is compose of people who are all connected to each other who are connected to their souls which are connected to their hearts and minds which are a part of their bodies along with their senses.

My city is a part of a county which is part of a state which is part of a country which is on a large mass of land which is connected to the ocean and under the ocean my country is connected to other countries and the air that we breathe is connected to or might even have been air that someone in Zimbabwe breathed two years ago because the wind pushes the air around and oxygenates the land we upon which we live and the water that we drink.

Everything... EVERYTHING... is connected.  What we do here and now can and in some way, directly, indirectly, adversely, positively affect something and someone else.  There is no end to this web.  To take it out further, our country is part of a world, which is part of the galaxy which is part of the universe, which is part of the cosmos... And just simply think about the fact that when we can see the Milky Way in the sky... it's not so much OUT THERE as it is RIGHT HERE... because we are IN it, we are a part of it.  What we do can affect an entire galaxy and beyond, and it IS.

We are all connected - everything is connected, and in order to sustain ourselves, we're going to have to get used to that fact.  The web of life is vast indeed, but fragile as well and we are tearing it apart so that nothing will be left but the very center... but it won't be connected to anything to hold it up unless we mind the ripple effect of our actions - and waiting for the big people in high places to start making the changes won't work because nothing ever changes from the top down.  It is up to small people to make small changes that add up to big results. 

I encourage you to analyze your life and figure out where you've disconnected from the web... and try to mend the rift.