Sunday, while I was seated in my weekly Catholic mass one of our priests, Father Mathew was giving his sermon. In it he quoted St. Paul who wrote “Hope is not Hope if it is for something that can be seen”. His discussion of Hope and Faith got my attention, because they are both very powerful words in my life.
I am not perfect, nor do I claim any level of righteousness because I attend mass regularly. As I have learned, we are all imperfect sinners but every day I try and do the right things.
Despite my college education, I do consider myself a “hard-working” white American. Some politicians would have you believe that my college education precludes me from relating to hard-working Americans.
No one is really quite sure when college-educated people suddenly became “elitists” in this country or when we stopped working hard. Granted I do not work in a manual labor job, but I work long hours.
I work several 90+ hour weeks annually in my job—including a lot of weekends and holidays. Those are hours I spend working so that my children can have food, health care, clothing, a roof over their heads and get an education.
The point is not who works hard, or who is college-educated or not college educated. The point is that when you are a parent and have a family, it doesn’t matter what your education level is, and it doesn’t matter what you do for a living.
Every parent has big dreams for the lives of our children.
My work takes me to schools and communities around the country. My work puts me in contact with young men and their families. These young men and their families come from different races, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. As a coach I have the chance to see young men and their families reach for opportunities that can change their lives.
When I first meet these young men and their families many of the young men are just 16 or 17 years old. I see parents that have the same goals—the same Hopes for and the same Faith in their children as my parents had in me, and I have in my children.
We get to see them grow up and mature from children to men ready to make their own way in the world. I have coached and recruited young men who were the first member of their families to graduate from college. Some have even gone on the NFL and become millionaires.
It all comes down to Hope and Faith and that is what Barack Obama’s campaign is all about. It should be a uniting force for people who Hope for a better country and a better world. We can not see the future so it is truly Hope for, and Faith in something yet unseen.
If we keep the Faith and we hold fast to the Hopes we have for the future, we can collectively will this campaign and Senator Obama to the Presidency. We have not seen the finish line in November yet, but our faith and perseverance will see us through. Faith will guide us until Hope gives way to a bright reality, illuminating a new golden American future.
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