Janina Lamb

To the editor:The word change has been pressed into service by all players in the 2008 primary and presidential campaign. Obama started it, and everyone else followed his lead. In a time of crisis, as soon as one guy says We need change, no-one else is going to say, No, we need things to stay the way they are, even though sometimes the underlying message is: "Elect me and I'll change things so that they go back to the way they used to be instead of the way you are scared they are going to be." There is a difference between change that happens to you, whether you like it or not, and change that you help to create, by understanding natural dynamics and facing reality. Melting ice caps and the crash of the global financial system are not the change we hope for, believe in, want, or need; they are the change we get as a result of our blindness to cause and effect. The change we need is a change in awareness, attitude and motivation. We need intelligent leaders who possess emotional maturity, the ability to see connections and multiple points of view, respect and compassion for others that go beyond a particular identity group, and an understanding of human nature. We are living in a new world, in which interconnectedness is a fact; not a new-age concept. My way or the highway no longer works. We are entering new territory whether we like it or not, and we need a political leader who is flexible enough to keep his balance as the ship of state sails into the choppy, uncharted seas of the future.I dont know what kind of president Barack Obama will be. I know that between the two choices we have for president, Barack Obama is clearly the man for the job, at this moment in time. His nonpartisan, wide-reaching vision grows naturally from a nonpartisan self. He is black and white, American and international, a man of the people, and part of an elite. He is a new man for a new time.General Colin Powell ended his recent endorsement of Senator Obama by saying, I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the worldonto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.