"Hope is not blind optimism. It is not ignoring the road blocks, the hazards, the hurdles that stand in the way of you and your dreams. Hope is just the opposite. I know how difficult it will be to bring about health reform in this country... I understand that we cannot expect to somehow fix our schools or reduce poverty just with the snap of a finger just because we hope for it... I have battled in the courts as a civil rights attorney. I have seen good legislation wither away because good intentions weren't enough because they weren't fortified with the political will or political power. I know how tough this will be.So do you. But what you and I also know is that... somebody, somewhere, decided to believe in something that was not obvious, that contradicted the conventional wisdom, that contradicted the status quo, that hadn't been done before... That's how slaves and abolitionists resisted an evil system. That's how a new untested president was able to plot a course to make sure we would no longer be half-slave and half-free. That's how the greatest generation defeated fascism and lifted itself up out of the Great Depression. That's how workers had the courage to take on the violence... to form unions so that all of us could benefit from the minimum wage... That's how women got the right to vote... That's how young people traveled down south to Selma and Montgomery and they sat in and knocked on doors and registered voters and got assaulted... that's what hope is. That's what hope is."
"Hope is not blind optimism. It is not ignoring the road blocks, the hazards, the hurdles that stand in the way of you and your dreams. Hope is just the opposite. I know how difficult it will be to bring about health reform in this country... I understand that we cannot expect to somehow fix our schools or reduce poverty just with the snap of a finger just because we hope for it... I have battled in the courts as a civil rights attorney. I have seen good legislation wither away because good intentions weren't enough because they weren't fortified with the political will or political power. I know how tough this will be.
So do you.
But what you and I also know is that... somebody, somewhere, decided to believe in something that was not obvious, that contradicted the conventional wisdom, that contradicted the status quo, that hadn't been done before...
That's how slaves and abolitionists resisted an evil system. That's how a new untested president was able to plot a course to make sure we would no longer be half-slave and half-free.
That's how the greatest generation defeated fascism and lifted itself up out of the Great Depression.
That's how workers had the courage to take on the violence... to form unions so that all of us could benefit from the minimum wage...
That's how women got the right to vote...
That's what hope is."
Comments are closed for this post.
