Yea!!!!!!!

I found this logo on the net in the middle of last year, and have been patiently waiting to use it.

Yea!!!

For months, years (OK, centuries) people have scoffed at messages of hope as the naive hobby of the slow-minded, as the cynical tool of the exploiter, as the weak argument of the down-trodden. Hope is the message of last resort for those without the strength and weapons to bring about change, because hope requires and relies on nothing more than a wish, a prayer, or a wail.

Such people are wrong.

Because, we know what hope is, and what it is not.

Hope is the initiator, not the goal. It is the thing that prepares the mind for action when all evidence, all opinions and every authority gather together and in one voice shout, "No!" Hope is what keeps us going, looking for another path to the goal, when the light fades and the darkest intentions of man rise like shadows on the road to break the will. Hope is the voice in our head softly chanting, "Just one more mile. One more yard. One more step." And, hope is the voice that feeds the next hope, whispering, "You can do this. Remember last time? When you thought you couldn't make it, and you did?"

Does hope replace knowledge? No. Does hope replace discipline? Decidedly not. Does hope replace perseverance? Preparation? Judgement? Insight? Creativity? Practicality? Determination? No, no, no, no, no, no, and no. All these things are required to succeed. But, it is hope that makes our successes imaginable. It is what drives us to stretch and realize the greatest manifestation of ourselves.

Hope opens a feeding program, then allows us to envision and push on to combine it with a clinic. Hope unleashes a stimulus package, while the harder work of building infrastructure and sustainable jobs progresses. Hope closes Guantanamo while finalizing plans to end the war that fed it.

Hope is the twin sister to faith, and the cousin of perseverance. It sustains us until we realize our victories. It salvages us while we recover from our defeats. And, it allows us to raise our heads before we climb the next mountain.

We have many challenges ahead of us. Yes, us. Because, while President Barack Obama brings us messages filled with hope and a determination to conquer the problems that face our nation, he can neither sustain that hope nor solve our problem alone. Of course not. No one can. Yet, there are those who look at him as the charlatan selling a sweet-smelling snake oil. The one who will fill our heads with bright rainbow visions of an impossible future. The one who will betray us, and break our hearts in the end. But, those that look on with mistrust, do not seem to recognize that it is our good intentions, dreams and visions for the future that we fight for.

Not Barack Obama's. Ours.

And, if we are to pursue our future, we must start, right now. We must conquer our negativity, our disbelief that anyone who rises to power can really want to do good, and our loss of trust in the face of so many past disappointments. We must open the blinds, look outside, step outside, breath in the air and think about what we want, and just what we can do about it. We must think, and argue about our definitions and goals, and come together, and support each other, and call a spade a spade, and work together anyway, and let go of fear, and work some more, and celebrate and fight again and commiserate, and get back to work the next day, and try, and try again until we are done. Then, we must get up the next day, and do it all over again.

And, we must accept that, when we succeed, it isn't a trick. No one's setting us up for future disappointment. We can do it again, because our eyes are open now, truly open now. We can see our future, and the road running toward it.

So today, and tomorrow, and every day after, let's hope without embarrassment, because we just kicked fear in the teeth with our silly hippie boots. And, it fell on its ass in the dust.