Tides.

The tide has turned.

Reporters and news anchors have stopped that snarling, their look of disbelief replaced by a calmer read-the-teleprompter look. Maybe because they WEREN'T reading they were more easily (and understandibly) caught up in the moment, or maybe they were just showing their humanity as it was revealed by what they were seeing. Usually those types can report with dispassion - it's part of the gig.

Maybe the shout-it-out combative tone of some of the cable networks is rubbing off on others as the old stalwarts have left the airwaves.

I prefer the reality of their humanity.

I think that too often, those who claim to be journalists are pretenders who hide behind that word. Maybe the profusion of media outlets and the internet has simply blunted those who might deliver an expose. There seems to have been more press about Brad and Jen than the evils of congress. Maybe the public is just fed up and would rather not know. I hope not.

I believe the tide has turned for President Bush, too, not that he can be re-elected after two terms anyway. Certainly you must respect the OFFICE of the presidency and stand behind that, but the man, in my opinion, is toast. The no-end-in-sight war (and by the way, what would a victory even LOOK like?), no found WMD, the government's fetish for secrecy, the surrender of personal liberties in the name of security, the economic mess, the tremendous failure in the face of Katrina, will erode what support he had. You are looking at a very lame duck. He was never good at showing HIS humanity, he deserves the blame for FEMA's bungling and his own lack of leadership, and now he's just... toast.

We - The United States, need an infusion of HOPE. It's there somewhere, right across the land, but hidden - gone fallow in the deep debris of despair over Katrina.
It's buried in the heartbreak of those who have lost loved ones in Iraq. It's hidden by a sense of vulnerability over the terrorism we all felt on 9/11.

Hope led our ancestors to a new land.

Hope fuels 'the right thing' - that in doing it, a natural order is correctly restored as it should be.

The dictionary defines HOPE this way:

1 : to cherish a desire with anticipation
2 archaic : TRUST
transitive senses
1 : to desire with expectation of obtainment
2 : to expect with confidence : TRUST

Does this seem like it's out there - alive and well - to you?

What we need are leaders who can bring that sense of hope out of hiding, who can motivate, encourage, and generate a sense of belief that the best is yet to come, that it lives in us all and that it can flourish. What that will take is a sense of showmanship, because today's public leaders are more public than ever... no matter how they hide or how furiously they are spun. It will take visible empathy. Inspiration. Honesty. And skill to manipulate and maneuver the bureacracy. That part might be the hardest.

Who comes to mind when you read the above? I get "none of the above" when I let my mind wander. I'm not saying there aren't good people - I am saying they haven't stood apart.