HOPE, DESPAIR, HISTORY, RENEWAL


I wrote this in response to something another member of the Marketview Heights Community Action Group wrote in an e-mail about the long history that people in this community have with working hard to bring about change only to have political, social and economic environments change, and despair return. I draw a lot of lessons from my own personal struggle with despair when I approach what needs to be done to help bring this neighborhood back to life.

As one who could at this point recount a story about my own mental hygiene arrest, back in 1998, I think I have a thing or to two say about despair and hope.

I have been as far down as you can possibly go, and come back, stronger, more vital than at any other time in my life, despite the fact that I continue to suffer severe physical disabilities.

Still, I do not judge anyone who has not come as far as I on this journey. I simply stand as evidence that fundamental change is possible. And if fundamental change is possible in an individual, it is also possible in a community.

We have to acknowledge the work that has been done. The pain that has been felt. The long history of starts and fizzles and starts and stops and tentative renewals. But we cannot allow the pain of the past to determine our future.

Today is a new day. This may be the day that marks the turning point in our lives or the life of this community. We must always live as if that is the case, even if, later, we find ourselves tangled in despair again.

Because as long as we keep fighting, hope lives.

Posted: Sun - May 14, 2006 at 10:12 AM          

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