I have hope and you can’t stop me.
Terrible awful things are happening all the time, but still I have hope.
Love is greater than fear. Love is everywhere. And as our First Lady said* the other night, “don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great.”
America has issues, don’t get me wrong. Big, huge, appalling issues. Challenges of astonishing magnitude abound.
And yet all is well.
Know truth
So many people have character, conviction, decency, and grace.
Hateful language “does not represent the true spirit of this country.”
If people are cruel or act like bullies, we know how to react: “When they go low, we go high.”
Go high
I am grateful to go high. I am so thankful for the skills, knowledge, and practices that allow me to pause, to reflect, to speak and act with compassion whenever possible.
Because Michelle Obama is right: “We know that our words and actions matter.”
And indeed, “we are always stronger together.”
Be change
Like Michelle, I want a leader who will be guided every day by love and hope—but I also want to BE a leader who is guided every day by love and hope.
I won’t just sit back and hope everything works out for the best. I will study The New Jim Crow until I can quote it. I will strive to be lovestruck,** not colorblind. I will take respectful action.***
Have hope
And I will ask my friends and family to join me. I will ask strangers too. I am asking you: How do you turn hope into truth?
Love > fear,
*If it’s not already clear, the bulk of this post includes quotes and paraphrases from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
** #lovestruck is a reference to Cornel West’s summation of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s calling for us to truly see and care for one another, as stated in the foreword to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.
*** #respectivist is my term for an activist who is motivated by respect for all. More about that later.