Here’s Hoping

Times are tough right now.  I know because I was told that.  Money is tight, gas is expensive and scarce, people are losing the values of their homes, student loans are about to become extinct, and as a country we have little expectation that any of that will be resolved in the immediate future.

So what do we do with ourselves in the meantime?  As constituents in our federal, state and local governments we have a responsibility to know all that we can about the issues that we are voting for; to know what our representatives stand for, to vote for what we believe in, and to somehow trust in our infrastructure that it won’t crumble if we don’t.  That’s the ideal.  We can’t all trust in that which we don’t have any reason to trust to begin with.  Our government has been known, almost since its existence, as a machine completely removed from the heart of the voting public.  It does what it wants to, when it wants to, and sometimes without any significant reason or justification.  We just have to keep believing and trusting.  It’s not an easy task, when you really look at that sentence.  But somehow, we must try.

I say that not because I don’t believe in our government or our leaders.  I believe that they all—no matter which side of the aisle they fall on—want what is best for our country and people.  We just want different things, but guess what.... we put those people in power so we have no one to blame but ourselves.  It means that we have to be more aware of our power as a voting public.  Do you live in a state that is, in all likelihood, going to an already established political party come Election Day?  That doesn’t mean you don’t vote, and it doesn’t mean you don’t continue to campaign for your candidate of choice.  It doesn’t mean you give up.  It might not lead to the outcome you wanted, but it means that you can stand up and say, without uncertainty, that you did what you had to in order to make your point clear.  And just imagine, if more people did that, then maybe their voices (and yours) would be heard more clearly.

Just think of it...we might, some day, be able to trust in something that is built on the foundation of trust and hope.  And not just dream of it.

Here’s hoping.

Image courtesy this guy.

Posted by on 10/01 at 02:27 PM