I Yet Have Hope

So many of our present-day ills are the results of third-rate men and women taking on first-rate responsibilities.

We are presently governed by folks mean in spirit, vile in character, given to lies, deceit and self-aggrandizement, twittering away their time, frittering away our social capital.

This mess hasn't happened overnight, but is the result of a long and steady slide into political mediocrity, where slogans prevail over common sense, decency and knowledge.

We've handed the reigns of government over to the wealthy, who, by instinct and character, are given to seek their own interests, believing in their wealth as proof-positive of a divine imprimatur, to do as they will, and that their wellbeing is the wellbeing of the nation.

The wealthy tell us that climate change is a hoax, even as the earth continues to display signs of enormous distress.

The wealthy profit from our interminable wars.

Conservatives dance on the grave of women's rights.

Fools build walls.

Idiots cheer on the chaos.

White supremacy licks its chops.

The narrow-minded grow ever more fearful of civil rights, voting rights, transgender and LGBTQ rights ... dashing freedom agains the rocks of conservative idealism.

A paroxysm of all the worst elements that can shake a nation to pieces ...

Yet, I have hope ... in the last months of my 74th year, that we will find a way through the mess, that better people are in the wings, that youth see the light of day beyond the darkness spun by their elders, that those now so cowed by the powerful will gain their courage and confront the lies.

That truth-tellers will hike up their pants, so to speak, women and men alike, to change the political landscape, to recover our fundamental values of liberty, and of the Spirit, faith, hope and love.

The recovery from the long slide into the present crisis will likely exceed my lifespan, but so it is with the vast movements of history.

Others will take up the cause, the pen, the hope, to right the present wrongs, to undo the present evils, to insure that every American is cared for, that all will have access to health care, education, birth control, security in employment, and assistance in need.

I yet have hope.