I invite you to present here your vision of the most desirable "history" of the period of January of 2007 up to January 0f 2013-- i.e. the best that you think is not altogether unreasonable to hope for.

As much you are willing and able, present not only the events/developments that you are envisioning but also the factors that will make possible their coming about. In other words, if you suggest that, in the next six years, the United States would become a leader in dealing with the challenge of climate change (or at least just stop being a drag on the process), I am encouraging you also to indicate the other developments that make that development possible.

It is valuable, I believe, to keep our eyes not only on the evils around us but also on the alternative future that we are struggling to bring to realization. And it is that belief --in the importance of holding desirable destinations in our minds-- that underlies this invitation to envision the best of our possible futures.

Not mere pipedreams. Not prayers for miracles. Things that really could happen. The range of possibilities, I might suggest, is broader than we generally realize: after all, on the downside, how many of us would have thought that so dark and destructive presidency as this could arise and drag the country so far downhill in a mere six years?

"Without a vision, the people perish." I have felt for quite some time that in America there has been a telling absence of any vision for where we want to get as a civilization. And now look where we are!