Hope Gets the Last Word

Went out for a few drinks after the caucuses on Monday. Discussing politics at the bar is always a risky business but the guy I was with was a big fella so nobody was going to mess with us. Besides, it was a Monday night and not epsecially crowded. But one guy at the end of the bar chimed in to say that -- and I'm paraphasing -- being involved was for suckers and that the system was rigged.

I basically responded by telling him that it was in many respects rigged but not so much that individuals could not be effective at the local level. See post below. Then I saw this essay by Cornell West on Blog For Iowa today and wished I'd had it in front of me Monday.

A specter of despair haunts late 20th-century America. The quality of our lives and the integrity of our souls are in jeopardy. Wealth inequality and class polarization are escalating – with ugly consequences for the most vulnerable among us…

The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. This is true at the personal level. But there's also a political version, which has to do with what you see when you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are simply wasting your time on the planet or spending it in an enriching manner.

We need a moral prophetic minority of all colors who muster the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, and the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, hoping to land on something. That's the history of black folks in the past and present, and of those of us who value history and struggle

To live is to wrestle with despair yet never to allow despair to have the last word.