The other day I went out to a party hosted by some fiery New York activists, people who have been on the front lines of the fight against the George Bush war machine.  Noble warriors, the lot of them. And yet, as I went from conversation to conversation, I was seized by a strange sinking feeling.  Everything positive that I put forward, was countered with some form of negativity.   Obama - well he's certainly not the new messiah. And have you seen some of his cabinet postings?  The internet, force of change and participatory democracy?  Well, don't you know it was invented by the military and is really a conspiracy to steal our personal information?  On and on, every little tidbit of hope I could summon up, was squashed. I didn't give up, I stuck to my guns, but I felt increasingly drained.   It was as if the very forces of division and domination these well meaning people were opposing had infiltrated their consciousness.  I was reminded of the Van Jones (one of our Fierce Light visionaries) quote, "Martin Luther King Jr. didn't get famous by saying, 'I have a complaint!'  And the famous Einstein quote,"You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it.  you must learn to see the world anew."  Sometimes I get so immersed in the new paradigm, of the change that is coming, that I forget that there are many people, people who are working for change, who still cling to the old ways, even though they no longer serve us.   We need to move beyond wallowing in our grievances, hiding behind our cynicism, protecting ourselves with bitterness and negativity, and open up our hearts to hope, to being the change, to the spaciousness of not always needing to be right.  To the possibility that there might be a better way.  That maybe the world isn't so black and white.  Maybe there is no "them" and "us".   Maybe it's just "us."