I Now Have Hope

I woke up this morning and for the first time in four years I have a feeling of hope. Nothing changed overnight. We are still in the midst of a pandemic where people are dying at record levels. Many are suffering from loss of jobs and income. The lines at food banks are getting longer and eviction rates are rising. The threat of violent protests is still here.

This past year it became especially important for me to look outside my immediate bubble. I started to really see the world and did some reflecting on what I was seeing.

Can you imagine:

• what would schools be like if all the money spent on political negative advertisements was spent on promoting and funding programs to support education?
• what comments on social media would look like if instead of using an acronym you had to put your real name and city you live in like you have to do on letters to the editor?
• what reading comments on social media might be like if they were sorted into positive and negative lists so you could more easily see the bullies?
• what would happen if political ads had to provide links to the evidence that supports their claims?
• what political ads would look like if they were accompanied by a “fact-check” rating similar to what is used for rating movies?
• what political parties would look like if people stopped cheering for them like they do a football team and started paying attention to what they are actually proposing?
• what it would be like if politicians set goals for solving problems instead of trying to keep others from scoring a win?
• what it would be like if people recognized that people with different opinions are also Americans.

The only thing that happened overnight were the election results in Georgia. I have to laugh because why should I, who does not even live in Georgia, care about an election there? I have always voted but until this year I was on the sidelines. I am finding that I do care about election results and I am willing to put myself out because of it. It is not just good enough to vote.

I woke up this morning with a feeling of hope because I believe that truth and integrity are beginning to break through. It is going to be a long journey back to a place where facts matter more than opinions.

Can you imagine what America could do if we all looked at a set of facts and debated how to solve the problem? I think that we would be in a much better place!