I’m usually one for cold calculation over impassioned rhetoric.
Usually.
So fucking sue me.
One of my biggest problems with our society right now is that we live in an atmosphere of fear (an atmosfear? Maybe.)
And while we like to blame the Republicans for all of it, I’m here to say that fear is alive and well on the left too.
President Bush was elected (?) based on fear. Fear of terrorist attacks. Mushroom clouds, foreign crowds, mass destruction, reconstruction.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.
</R.E.M.>
That’s the obvious fear, and one whose origin is easily traced. It’s been carefully crafted to keep the voting masses in check, check-checking that Republican box on the ballot.
But there is a more insidious fear that I see infiltrating and permeating our side of the spectrum, and it scares the shit out of me.
If we are to counter the Republican fear machine, we have to offer hope. But right now, we are afraid to hope, and I don’t know why. And I sure as hell don’t like it. It is crippling us and may do so for years to come.
As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength
Come with me and I won’t steer you wrong
–Eminem, Mosh
It seems that every blog I read, every story, every diary, expectations are tempered. We are so used to being shat upon that we start smelling the shit before it comes close to the fan.
Yes, I am specifically talking about Patrick Fitzgerald right now, but my point is much wider than that. All this hedging on Fitzmas is just the spark that I need to proceed, if you will.
Don’t get too far out.
We don’t know yet what is going to happen.
You’re damn right we don’t. But neither do they. And they’re scared, because they’re under the spotlight after all.
Why should I be afraid to hope that this corrupt administration is finally going to suffer the embarrasment and the punishment that it deserves?
Why should I be afraid to hope that those architects of our democracy left too many loopholes open, that people of selfish nature and weak morals can take advantage of?
Everything will be alright if ya hold on
It’s a struggle everyday, gotta roll on
–2Pac, Dear Mama
Hope is what we have to offer. Hope for equality. Hope for opportunity.
Hope for justice.
Why should I be afraid to hope that we are working for a brighter day?
I know that many of you will circular-file this away as youthful bright-eyed optimism.
But seriously, what the fuck is the point if we can’t hope?
Couldn’t keep it in anymore.
Also, partly inspired by catnip’s earlier diary.
I know that many of you will circular-file this away as youthful bright-eyed optimism.
Then let us lead the way of the path to hope! I’m right there with you amigo.
¿Si no podemos esperar, qué podemos hacer?
đ
I made a conscious decision a few years ago to walk the path of optimism instead of pessimism (not that I haven’t done some back sliding). I think people become pessimists because they can’t stand the idea of disappointment. But if you are pessimistic, it’s like being disappointed all the time. You’re disappointed in advance. And it isn’t like you get to enjoy the relief when things aren’t as bad as you thought, because there is always something else to be disappointed in advance about.
Also, and more to the point of this site, I think that optimistic people get more done. Would I be calling hundreds of people trying to get referenda C and D passed here in Colorado if I gave in to the feeling that “people in this state are too greedy to pay their taxes” ? No. And if C and D don’t pass I’ll certainly be disappointed. But hey, I tried. And we’ll get ’em next time.
So never mind this “youthful” optimism meme. I am much more optimistic than I was as a cynical know-it-all youth!
is one of my favorite comments ever đ
Thanks!
I am with you on this, I am full of hope, written many rays of hope diaries, and now I am even more hopeful than ever….
Serious changes are coming and they will be good, of that I am positive…
So I say be positive, be hopeful…and we can use all our thought energies to make it so. Remember too, that the rest of the world is waiting for this, they are hoping along with us, that makes a mighty big volume of energy…
Good diary!!!!
I’m so glad you’re on our side.
You’re such a powerful proponent of hope, it kind of frightens me to even think about what you could do if you decided you wanted to scare people đ
ROFLMAO Oh my. . .what a great laugh. . .Diane wanting to scare people. . . .a strong and powerful woman to be sure, but she rides on the wings of hope and often has to carry the rest of us along. First thing she would say is “Be not afraid.” All the angels say that. . .
we must keep hope alive.”
A poem I wrote three years ago:
In order to survive
And to thrive
We must keep hope alive
She said
Yet my heart is filled with dread
As the darkness looms ahead
In order to survive
And to thrive
We must keep hope alive
Yet I wonder what’s left unsaid
And if I choose to push ahead
Will I still be held by this thin thread
In order to survive
And to thrive
We must keep hope alive
I hear it in her voice
Urging all around to rejoice
As we have no other choice
In order to survive
And to thrive
We must keep hope alive
3 October 2003
oops…that should read “two years ago.”
is essential to creating a vision of where it is we want to go.
What I recall from reading Imagining Argentina by Thornton, Lawrence, is that for any movement seeking regime change it is a huge mistake to only react to a regimes actions. The movement must at some point, “imagine,” or create a vision of what life for its people will be like after regime change occurs.
Thus “imagining”, vision, and hope must co-exist prior to a successful regime change.
(Imagining Argentina is set in the dark days of the late 1970’s, when thousands of Argentineans disappeared without a trace into the generals’ prison cells and torture chambers….)
Powells has copies;I just ordered one.
You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you’ll join us,
And the world will live as one.
-John Lennon, Imagine
From the circles I travel in, I will tell you there is far more HOPE than we can imagine. . .so we best get our imaginers fixed and step up to proclaim how hopeful we are that there will be the Highest and Best outcome in all things.
Fear is self-destructive, Hope is eternally creative.
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
Bob Dylan’s youthful bright-eyed optimism from back in my day.
Thanks for this diary.
I remember like 6 or 8 months ago, some of us were saying we saw a ray of hope on the horizon, like the first light before dawn.
Now the sunrise is almost here, and we who have been in the darkness so long are sometimes afraid of the light, having not seen it in so long that we scarce remember how good it can be. Or afraid that the promise will be dashed and our hope be left in the mud.
Eight months ago I was in full-fledged planning for a move of my family to Canada, anticipating that invasion of Iran was imminent and my sons would be drafted, or there would be another “terror incident” that allowed martial law to be declared.
Last weekend, I packed away my binder of downloaded information from Immigration Canada, my information on Canadian real estate, cost of living, environmental laws (I work in the environmental field), how to get into their health care program, etc. [Sorry, Catnip!]
I haven’t thrown it out because I still don’t trust W to not try and manufacture an incident to save himself, but I am beginning to be seriously hopeful that I may not need that information after all. I did some long-put-off house repairs/maintenance in the anticipation that I might be around long enough to enjoy them.
Or as you might have caught in Jazz Jam last week:
I was seriously considering trying to expatriate after the elections last year.
But then I started thinking that no, if I leave, that is one less person who can fight against this corrupt regime that has taken over MY country.
It’s taken a while for a lot of us to recover from that devastation last November, but I think at long last we really are starting to wake up from this nightmare.
We were looking into Costa Rica. In fact that why the resume was sent in to a company, because they have a plant in Costa Rica.
I HATE how we were thinking of moving…but this government is doing nothing but ruining this country and our children’s future.
We’ll see how the move to Oregon goes…
I too have hope.
But… these right wingers are afraid now too. Not of terrah… but of US. You and me. They are getting dangerous now, especially for those of us in red areas. Be hopeful but also be careful.
Snoopy dance of hope and joy
I was thinking about Costa Rica too…even started brushing up on my Spanish đ
Yup, we have books and cds đ
Damn husband lost his social security card… our passports are expired.
You don’t need a SS card to get a passport.
I got a passport without one, anyway…I didn’t ‘lose’ my SS card, but it was in my wallet at the time that my wallet ceased to be mine and became someone else’s through nefariously skullduggwerous means.
that should have been ‘skullduggerous’. I don’t know how that ‘W’ got in there.
But I have learned that even spellcheck cannot help you when you’re making up your own words to misspell…
no but we need his SS card for numerous other things. I didn’t know he had lost it till recently. Men!… er I mean ONE MAN! LOL
Great diary my friend and a much needed reminder that we all must have hope and be optimistic that the truth will win out. It has been so hard to hang on and not be fearful that these warmongers/profiteers would continue getting away with the lies they fed us to go to war. There have been so many instances when I thought, ah, this is the one, this will take them down. Now I am positive that they will not go unpunished and the tides are changing. Come on Fitzgerald give us all what we have been waiting for!!
man, mosh always makes me want to storm something… I guess that’s a form of being hopeful đ
seriously, I love the Em song. He should have released it a few weeks earlier imo… would have had more impact. the video was stark and haunting. anyway, sorry, this isn’t a thread about MOSH. đ
Good point on not giving in to fear. It’s tough, but yeah, without hope no movement would ever get off the ground. Imagine all the people who told MLK to just give it up, the whitey’s would never give up power so he just shouldn’t try… just stay home and be the good slave.
I think not. Hope & faith in the future and a keen sense of what he believed was right were the things that got him up in the morning. If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for us on Boo… đ
Mosh was the soundtrack for my life in the weeks leading up to the election.
Every American should have been required to watch that video before voting (of course, I guess requiring something like that isn’t very American, is it?).
so love.
and be.
and do some more.
As a buddhist, I’m not exactly supposed to “hope” for things because desire causes suffering. However, if living in the moment is what life’s all about, that also means I should not deny the reality of each moment.
The reality, as we know it, of many recent moments shows me that we are moving towards something. Well, we always are. But, to deny where the signs are pointing is not living in the reality-based community.
There is trouble ahead, from all we’ve seen, for the Bush administration. Regardless of whether or not there are indictments there will be many facets of the Iraq war lies exposed to millions of people who need to know about them yet.
So, while I try hard not to “hope” for indictments (I try really, really hard), it’s not false for me to admit that big changes are coming.
Those who want to temper my current reality can just STFU – like I said in my diary. đ
I can be excited, tense, or whatever the heck I want to be and no one has the right to take that away from me – or you, ejmw.
We’re not stupid. We know things might not happen they way we expect as far as incictments go, but when you look at the big picture, the effects of Fitz’s investigation coming to a close will be widespread and extremely informative. In fact, they already have been.
So you keep on hoping and I’ll do my version of it too. đ