Sometimes all it takes is someone to stand up and say what there is to say. Someone faces the fear and criticism that has kept so many people quiet and those same people are inspired to stand also. Then add the power of the Internet, and you just might have a virtually uncontrollable, decentralized movement on your hands, where the few have the power to reach the many and swell their numbers to become an undeniable force for change.

Such is the power of a single person at the dawn of the 21st century!

A few weeks ago I turned 37. And I have a confession to make. I have NEVER voted in my life! I have NEVER been inspired by the political machine here in America, and have believed there are much better uses of my time to make a difference than becoming part of the political game (such as the entrepreneurial endeavor called VisionForce).

Well, now I’m about to register to vote. Say WHAT?

Yup. It’s all Ron Paul‘s fault.

Consider this: Political power is largely the power of force. Here in America, many people have popularized the concept of democracy, and come to hold that as America’s fundamental value that makes us great. A pure democracy is essentially the rule of the majority over the minority. Is that what makes America great? That the majority can force the minority to live by their values? Or that we have a process, whereby everyone can participate and have their voice heard? I think most Americans would agree that what we value in democracy is the later. And the essential value is freedom–the freedom to think, speak and believe as we wish and the freedom to live our lives by our own conscience, values and vision as we please provided we don’t hurt others’ freedom to do the same.

However, notice how elections have become a time when we pit person against person, group against group, fighting for the power to tell others how to live their lives. Notice the ways in which “democracy” is indeed used as a tool for a minority of citizens (who vote and are in the voting majority) to force everyone else in the country (and around the world when the given country has a world-governing foreign policy) to conform to their ideas.

We could have a discussion about whether or not this is what the American founders envisioned, and about whether or not they even considered this a democracy or a constitutional republic.

But let’s look at what it’s going to take now in the 21st century to create a world that really works. Is it going to take some great visionary leader to save us and “make things right?” Or is it going to take us coming together, recognizing that we each have the capacity to be visionary leaders of our own lives who can come together to stand for a political and economic environment where we can truly see, hear and honor the human being on “the other side,” and then sit down with him or her and use the genius of the human mind to create previously impossible-seeming solutions.

Ron Paul. Is he a quack, as so many in the mainstream media and political machine seem to make him out to be? Certainly he’s courageously questioning so many of the long-held assumptions that give the mainstream media and politicians power today. Certainly his ideas would shake the foundations of the political machine as it exists today. If the machine is working well, then I don’t think they have much to fear. Dismiss Ron Paul, if he’s trying to change something that is working incredibly well.

One thing that excites me about Ron Paul is what his policies might do to free the human mind and spirit from an environment of fear and distrust. What would happen to ourselves, each other and the world we live in, if we were free to raise our wings and sour into the wide open skies, where we as visionary beings can breathe fresh air and take it upon ourselves to create a world that works?

When I look at Ron Paul, I see someone who is not trying to force his values on me, but who respects and trusts me as a conscious, creative human being–as an adult–to make my own choices and live my life.

It takes a lot of courage and commitment for anyone to run for president, and I trust that the others who are doing so really care deeply about America.

Still, a big question that faces us now is what kind of political environment is going to free the human mind and spirit to flourish in the 21st century, and create the kind of environment where we can come together to create a world that really works?

What would a top-down positionary leadership style on the part of another American president do what trust is left on the part of the American people and our 6 billion plus neighbors around the world?

Ron Paul or no Ron Paul, my voice and my vote will go for the idea that we as human beings have more power to come together and create than we give ourselves credit for. We can trust each other far more than we do, and we do not need to fear freedom. We do not need some great visionary leader to save us and make the bad guys be good. No, we need to accept the responsibility and the power to create a better world–the responsibility and power that only freedom can bestow upon us.

I say it’s time we stop trying to force our neighbors to be our idea of what’s right, and set them free. Honor them with freedom. Then let’s sit down with them at the table, break bread with them and collaborate as equals.

I say it’s time for YOUR vision to be seen, YOUR voice to be heard, YOUR spirit to be felt, YOUR stand to be taken, YOUR creativity to be unleashed, YOUR life to be lived.

What is YOUR vision? What is YOUR stand? What is YOUR revolution?

How can we help to empower YOUR vision?