I am not going to discuss Tea Party, Sarah Palin, The Far Right, or the politics of hope and change. I am going to discuss how it's working. You see the tone of that question...just the pure vitriol of the statement is something that causes me to ponder...
When did it become wrong to hope? When did change become always bad? What exactly is wrong with hoping for things to change for the better? You see I have hope. Even if it is sometimes a little scary or even a lot scary, change is good thing. For any one to belittle the idea of hope, tells us the nature of that person.
Hope is a verb. It is an action verb. Hope is not a state but a movement for or towards something. It is according to Mirriam-Webster, "to cherish a desire with anticipation" and "to desire with expectation of obtainment." Is that such a terrible thing to want...to HOPE for? And yet there is a whole slew of people who think that hope is a thing to be diminished, to be made fun of, to be used as a political sledge hammer. HOPE is not something we should give up on. Just because it we don't obtain it in a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade does not mean we should give up hope. Why would anyone want to take that away except for the meanest, small-minded, wretch who has given up hope and has decided no one else should have it either.
Change too is an action verb. Again according to Mirriam-Webster it means "to make different in some particular, to make radically different," or "to become different." Okay, change is hard but it occurs. It can take time. It can be good or bad. We can hope for a change or dread the change that follows. We can hope that the change that comes make our lives better and that we will move ahead to become a better person, people, nation, world. We can fear the change to our economy, our environment, our checkbook. But to attach the word hope to the word change is not a bad thing. Of course if you live in the past and think that things were better during a certain period of time than it actually was, then a hope for change probably does scare the bejesus from your little "boy-in-the-bubble" world.
I still believe in hope. I still believe in change for the better. It is what I desire. I don't want to go back to the past. I want to remember the good times and bad times from then so I can enjoy the good times and avoid repeating the bad ones. I want to move past the dark ages of extremists and look to the light...the hope of new day. If I am naive, then I am naive. Hope and Change are still in my life...not the small minded thoughts of anyone who would take it from me.
That hopey changey thing is working just fine for me.
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." -Albert Eistein
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