Hope for the Homestretch (freePress article reposted on there site)

[SueZhope]

This was from before the election put they posted it on FreePress today
interesting!

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1013
Hope for the Homestretch

by Paul Rogat Loeb
December 22, 2004

In an election likely to be decided as much by voter turnout as by convincing the remaining undecided, how do we maintain the hope that’s necessary to keep making the phone calls, knocking on the doors, funding the key ads, and doing all the other critical tasks to get Bush out of office?

Even those of us working hard for change hit walls of doubt and uncertainty about whether our actions really matter. Our spirits rise and fall as if on a roller coaster with each shift in the polls. In a time when lies too often seem to prevail, we wonder whether it’s worthwhile to keep making the effort.

[IndyOp]

1. SueZhope - Thanks! My favs from the article:

Snippets from a piece re-posted on FreePress.org (originally posted pre-election):

Even those of us working hard for change hit walls of doubt and uncertainty about whether our actions really matter... In a time when lies too often seem to prevail, we wonder whether it’s worthwhile to keep making the effort.

What is it that enables people to take difficult stands despite all the pressures to stay silent? What will allow us to keep on? Those who persist in the critical work of change recognize that history turns in unexpected ways, and that courage is contagious... They recognize that action forges new possibilities, a process Reverend Jim Wallis describes as “BELIEVING IN SPITE OF THE EVIDENCE -- THEN WATCHING THE EVIDENCE CHANGE.”

Think of heroes of the past who persevered through bleak times and helped end unjust regimes: Rosa Parks and Václav Havel did it by maintaining hope, precisely when success seemed most elusive. In Havel’s case, critics mocked the early human rights initiatives that he and others launched, particularly a petition to free jailed dissidents. Dissenters everywhere receive similar treatment... As Havel wrote, three years before the dictatorship fell, “HOPE IS NOT PROGNOSTICATION, IT IS AN ORIENTATION OF THE SPIRIT, AN ORIENTATION OF THE HEART."

We need the courage to persist between now and the November election— AND BEYOND.

[SueZhope]

2. great snippets IndyOp

I love this

“BELIEVING IN SPITE OF THE EVIDENCE -- THEN WATCHING THE EVIDENCE CHANGE.”

We are truly in the BEYOND