In 1980 I had a powerful dream unlike any other I have had before or since that time.  When I awoke I told a friend, that I would be the first woman president of the United States.  His reply was that he didn’t think so.

I had to agree with him that it was an unlikely possibility.  The vision stayed with me over the years.  In 1989 I was attending a visioning workshop for coaches to assist the Chicago Public Schools to come up to national standards.  The vision workshop facilitator said that to implement your vision you have to share it.  I realized I was terrified at the thought of sharing my vision of becoming the first woman president.

Shortly after the visioning workshop I was at an organizational meeting for Earth Day ’90.  A stranger came up to me and asked me, “What do you do?”  I thought this was my chance to lean into sharing my vision.  I told him that I was running for president of the United States.  He asked me, “When?”.  I quickly calculated that the soonest I could be ready was 2004.  He responded that I looked like I was ready now.  He offered to take me home and gave me his card.  A year later I called him up telling him I decided to run for president in 1992.  We spent the next 9 years living and working together.

It turned out that man was Ed Ponder.  Ed is credited in the Illinois Blue Book as being the founder of the Environmental   Protection Agency.  He was instrumental in founding the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency which was used as the blueprint for founding the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Ed became my mentor.  We worked for 9 years on technology to take all organic waste and turn it into products.  This technology is now being used all over the world to empower people to use their own waste as their source of energy.

  Ed supported my presidential campaign in 1992.  I ran for president again in 2004.  I have no intention of campaigning now for the presidential office. I am deeply committed to doing whatever I can do to assist our nation and the world toward healing solutions to the challenges we are now facing.  I believe a tremendous transformation is coming forward on all levels of our society.  Together we are the ones who can and will make that transformation wonderful.  I have given 34 years of thought to the changes which will make a lasting positive difference in our lives.   Which solutions we choose will make all the difference for our futures.  Deepening democracy is the key.