Hope

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 Hope.


For every moment of despair, we will give hope, ten-fold.

Hope is all that is left right now. Hope is the light in the darkness of despair.

Over this lifetime, the halls of Congress, boardrooms, universities, law, and medical schools have become more diverse.  It seems that those of us who were disenfranchised, finally have a "seat at the table", and even at the head of the table.  We celebrated America’s first trans woman in the US House of Representatives. The story is that her campaign ran on jobs and the economy.  And that is hope. Hope that identity politics includes class and addresses the poor and working class in this country.

In other words, the seats of power were becoming a level of diversity that we’d never experienced before these times.  And that in itself is hope, but what continues to be missing from the table is the voice of working-class and poor people.  There is a line from the song called, “Which Side Are You On?”, that reflects this sentiment, “poor folks ain’t got a chance unless they get organized.” But the other divisions that are perpetuated by powerful and wealthy white people keep those divisions alive. Because the minute you try to bring us all together, the powerful will kill you. Hope is that talking about class will become the norm.

However, for white economic leftists and some liberals, we are often told that we should only talk about class, and tell the rest of us to drop our “identity politics”.  And we say to them, maybe instead of telling the rest of us that YOU should tell your white working-class/poor siblings this. Instead, some of the white, male trade union leaders have joined with the GOP, the party of the wealthy and inequality. The party that works to destroy labor rights. The party that embraced “trickle-down” economics.  Anyway, bring hope to an “intersectional” labor movement. So if you identify as a white leftist, work on our white working-class siblings. Tell them that they have more in common with the rest of us. It’s your job to bring them into the fold. We need to stop the divisions that the wealthy used to maintain power.  Do not count the white rural people out of this fight, and remember there are rural people of all demographics and all ideologies. We can bring economic justice to all Americans. That is hope.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time, as the saying goes.  We can defend human rights while fighting for labor rights. We can defend LGBT+ rights while we fight for American healthcare.  We can defend justice for black Americans while taxing the wealthy.  We can fight for economic equality while we defend women’s equality.  WE can do this.  Again, we need hope to keep the rights that many Americans who came before us fought for, including labor, gender, and other human rights.  We are one nation…

Hope is all that we have in these darkest times.  Hope that our better selves win over our worst selves. The rights that we have right now are a reflection of that.

Thank you to those generations who fought for the rights that we’ve enjoyed over the years.

Thank you to those ancestors who fought for labor rights, overtime, and five-day workweek.

Thank you to those activists who fought to end child labor.

Thank you to those women who fought for our right to vote and for reproductive rights. They made it possible for the rest of us to achieve those seats of power.  They made it possible for us to choose when to start a family.

Thank you to our ancestors who fought for racial civil rights. Without that, we wouldn’t have honor and integrity. They ensured that we had our voices heard and welcomed in all spheres of life. 

Thank you to all of our ancestors who made it possible to create social programs that helped the poorest of us, like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  

Thank you most of all to those who fought for educating every child regardless of demographic or class.

Thank you to those LGBT ancestors who fought hard to be seen, to have integrity, and equality.

And most of all, thank you to all those who continue to fight for this progress that we’ve accomplished. Our Union is far from perfect, and we still have a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to economic equality.

Unfortunately, it’s those with regressive policies and only concern about the rights of the wealthy, that want to take away these rights, starting today. The billionaires are chomping at the bit to take away labor rights, civil rights, and especially our social programs. All so they can pay less in taxes. This fight is not about democracy being liable for our failures, but the greed of the 

But as it has been said, there is hope. Hope is that we take to the streets to demand to keep the rights that we have rightfully won. Hope will give us courage and strength to fight for the rights we have earned. Hope will give us the love that is needed to get us through this hate.

But it will be our light of hope that will light the way for others.  Do not give up hope. Do not give up. Hope will save our democracy and it will not be lost. It is greed that is destroying all of us.

Hope. 

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