The lack of knowledge many Americans have of other cultures is saddening. Worse still the lack of understanding among our so-called leaders. We, for the most part, suffer from a kind of arrogant isolationism that insulates us from the rest of the world. Senator Obama has been fortunate enough to have been exposed to the world outside our borders. He was blessed to have had a mother who insisted upon giving him broad and varied experiences. His whole family is like a mini United Nations, and so he is able to understand more intimately the fears and hopes particular to differing cultures, while recognizing himself and all of us in their eyes. His speech, 'The War We Need to Win' was one of the most insightful and comprehensive evaluations of the complexities we face in the world that I have ever read. Like a holistic practitioner, he doesn't seek to put a band-aid on symptoms, but reach beneath for the root causes and heal the whole body. Other politicians and would-be leaders attempt to surgically remove a superficial growth, while the deeply rooted cancer continues to grow and metastasize inside only to erupt again, and again at a different location, as a symptom with a different name. Obama looks below the surface and treats the cause. That is the only way the body can heal. That's the only way the world can heal.
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