Stress breeds anger and desperation. It's bound to happen. Always does. Are you seeing it and feeling it in your circle -- amongst co-workers, friends, family, your community? When people go through highly stressed times, we don't always behave the greatest, do we? Tempers flare and irrational behavior ensues. Sure, some results can be Jean Valjean-esque acts of desperate but almost noble behavior but other acts are just misguided desperation.

The recent economic trials of our country and the world are going to increasingly trigger bizarre and wrong behavior. And, to some degree, because we're all in the same boat, we not only come to expect this behavior on the part of others but we actually can fall right in step with it.

Have you noticed how we've all started to wince less when we hear of another grisly mass murder? Maybe we don't exactly take them in stride yet but I suspect we are heading that direction. You almost open up the news expecting to see another story of some horrible tragedy enacted on others by a sadly misguided and incredibly furstrated individual or two.

President Obama -- you need to be the leader to take us out of this increasingly negative mindset. We've become like the Israelites in the desert ... if you do not constantly remind and re-remind us of the promise and hope before us, we become angry ... cynical ... withdrawn ... depressed. And when that happens, bad behavior is expected and indeed ensues.

Ronald Reagan rallied our country as a "shining city upon a hill". Bush Sr. challenged us to be a thousand points of light. Yes, they stole these sayings from others that went before them. And, yes, you can argue the long term positive effectiveness of these "slogans" but, if you lived through them, you will recall that these sayings brought us hope ... they brought us vision ... they brought us direction and renewed optimism.

President Obama, we need this now. You do sometimes speak in optimistic, hopeful and reassuring terms but you have yet to give us something as a country to rally behind. Or, better yet and even more appropriate for our times, as a world to rally behind.

Am I reducing our country or world's future to being dependent upon a catchy saying? Maybe so ... but it is what we need. It has worked in the past and we need it again. It is one way to begin truly leading a people who are increasingly angry, bitter and irrational. It is one way to lead us onward and upward ... to give us vision and a dream ... to help us to aspire and see the lack of a future that exists in normal human behavior during stressful times.

Bring us something that leads us, President Obama. Help us to dream and hope once again. Help us to see what we can be ... what God intended us to be ... help us to live into that shining city upon a hill