Keeping Hope Alive

Sometimes, this gets difficult. Really freaking difficult.

Not just the writing, or the research. Not keeping track of all of the things that happened each day.

The hardest thing is keeping hope.

All around us, on the news, on Facebook and Twitter, is nothing but negativity.

Hatred, violence, bigotry, misogyny.

That’s not even counting the incompetence, paranoia, and fear emanating from politics.

The fear that this country, our society, our civilization, might be coming to an end.

But, there is hope.

Everyday, people are out and about doing good deeds, whether or not they’re seen.

More people are speaking out against the hatred and bigotry than ever before.

People are finally bringing truth to power, forcing corruption from it’s safe spaces in the shadows, into the light.  Corruption cannot exist in the light.

Dozens of Neo-Nazis show up to a rally, only to be met by THOUSANDS who say NO MORE! NOT HERE! NOT ANYWHERE!

More people are getting involved than ever before to raise their voices against corruption and greed.

And then, there are those in the shadows fighting shadows.

They’re crawling through the muck and the grime to bring those dirty secrets to light.  Secrets of grift, corruption, vice, and avarice.  Every dirty little secret, they make it their mission to make sure the world knows.

And they make sure that these secrets get out for everyone to see.  Whether through their own efforts, or the efforts of journalists, they tell the story.

But it’s not just the bad news that these warriors release.  They release good news, too.

They tell people how far along investigations are, who’s being looked at, and who’s in a big world of hurt.

Most of them will never be known.  Sometimes, years later, they’re known, but not often. Most of them have too much at risk to tell the world what they did.  Even if they are known, they’ll deny it.

These are some of the people I think about when I’m low on hope and optimism.  The people risking themselves in this information war, to bring down a corrupt administration, and let justice prevail.

Fiat Justitia Raut Caellum.  Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

This is not a country of political parties, or personalities, or of men, or wealth.  This is a nation of laws.  Nobody is above the law.  Sometimes as Americans, we need to relearn this lesson from time to time.

Winston Churchill once said “Americans will always do the right thing.  They’ll just do everything else first.”  I honestly believe that.  We will do right, we will fix this, and then we will take steps to prevent this from happening again.

That’s what helps drive me, what helps me to keep hope.  Because we’re Americans.  We’re not going to let this fall apart.  We do a lot of stupid shit, but we also can be brilliant at the same time.  Sometimes, at the exact same thing.

We’ll get through this.  Of that, I can be optimistic.