Keep Hope Alive

The Audacity of Hope

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Issue #50: OpEd

This will be a short article because it is so difficult to write. It’s even harder to write because I’ve always been a news and politics “junkie,” and a steady diet of either these days is hard on the mind and body. 

I could write pages and pages, but I won’t. Not this time. 

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COVID. War. Climate Change. Insurrectionists. Police Shootings. Racists. Mass Murderers. Hunger. Debt. Inflation. Dirty Politics. Mental health. Inequality in and for everything. Shall I go on? Can you add more?

There is so much negativity and horrible conditions swirling around us locally, nationally, and internationally 24/7 that it is so easy to lose hope. You can especially feel hopeless if you feel there is nothing you can personally do about anything.

At the 1988 Democratic National Convention, Rev. Jesse Jackson ended his speech by urging Americans to “Keep Hope Alive!”

In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama published his bestselling book, “The Audacity of Hope.” 

Both men, while acknowledging the myriad of problems in America, also believed that things in America could get better.

Of course, as bad as many things were back then, those were also different times politically. At least we had two actual major political parties that operated within the law (mostly), even though there were deeply held opinions about how things should be. 

“Hope” is not enough.

The only way to get through these times IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) is to concentrate on what we can control and on the things we can do. If it seems “too much,” we can only concentrate on 1-3 areas with our time, money, and effort.

What we shouldn’t do is do nothing.

Even though I am double-vaxxed and double-boosted, and even though Dr. Fauci recently declared that we are “out of the pandemic phase,” I am still going to continue my COVID safety protocols when I’m around people I don’t know or when in crowds. COVID and its gazillion variants are still around.

As usual, I’ll be working hard for the political candidates of my choice—the ones who are not trying to destroy our democracy for their own political gain and power.

I’ll continue to work with organizations that work with people not as fortunate as we are.

There are some other things that I will be doing and I’ll probably share those things here from time to time.

The one thing I will not do is lose hope, as hard as that will be.

What do you think?