When I launched America, Americaa little over three months ago, I intended to focus on a combination of alarm and hope in these posts. It’s no surprise that recent months have led me to give more attention to the alarming realities that have put our democracy and justice system at risk. That won’t change, not as long as we are facing a population of elected officials and their supporters continuing to perpetuate the Big Lie of election fraud, seeking new ways to deny voting rights and refusing to confront the deadly January 6 insurrection.
But what sustains me is the belief in a better America and the underlying ideals and values that give light and fuel to this promise. I have the good fortune to work at a university, where I’m not just surrounded by smart people, but also by motivated and collaborative students and teachers who are driven by the challenge to create better futures—and who see the necessity of it. Despite the dark pressure from the worst among us, I still believe in the capacity of humans to work together in common purpose to achieve great things.
Many of you shared examples in last week’s discussion thread of people and organizations that you admire. That told me that you also carry hope about our potential to redirect the nation’s trajectory and to take action that can help fulfill this desire. So let’s expand on this today: What Gives You Hope? Maybe it’s an idea. Maybe it’s a person. (Maybe it’s a spirited child or a resilient elderly person.) Maybe it’s an organization. Maybe it’s an experience or personal relationship that inspires your belief that we can get beyond the darkest days and pursue progress.
I’m excited to hear what you’re thinking—and for the chance for us to learn from each other.
Will you consider becoming a paid subscriber so we can expand this work? As noted in my last post, I will be sending paid subscribers both the written posts and audio versions read aloud by me.
I am retired, turned 75 and have been a vigorous man maintaining a great yard in liberal Saint Petersburg, Florida. A heart issue motivated me to marry my long-term male companion last Fall, then put me out of commission for two months in the Spring concluding two weeks ago. The yard suffered, and I found a firm that takes care of mowing and associated tasks, to my relief.
A neighbor with whom I share a city refuse dumpster for bi-weekly collection encountered me slowly depositing yard refuse in the alley dumpster, he a renter whom I term a redneck with junk cars and such littering the yard. He asked about my absence and my property upkeep. I explained that I had been ill, have a list of things to get done, and will try to do what I can as I am able.
This so-called redneck took it upon himself to begin repairing a rotted roof soffit keeping a gutter from staying attached as hurricanes stalk Florida, caulking skylights on a steep roof in the blazing heat, pruning tall, horribly-thorned-though beautiful bougainvillea shrubs, reinforcing privacy fencing slats loosened by tropical winds, and basically doing everything on my list of hellish chores for the aging homeowner.
Offers of cash for wages are refused, trips to hardware stores are made for me with the costs fronted by the neighbor.
How can this be? A fat angel in flip flops makes possible scratching off the most troublesome items on my list of things to do lest this house be left with yawning problems to my husband when I get my summons to join the innumerable caravan of the beyond, as shall we all. What is on my active mind had been his motivation, which I now accept as neighborly, like America used to be. But then I want to know for whom he voted, and his opinions on letting the Russians into our election discussions, and how our GOP government in Florida is aligned with Satan, don't you agree?
Then I remember that we didn't used to ask people about their politics before we offered to fix their flat tire, or take a casserole to the home of a bereaved neighbor, however they kept their yard or with whom they associated. And I get almost teary thinking of a Norman Rockwell painting of a New Englander at a town meeting, nervously speaking his piece as we Americans were noted for doing. And that is all gone with Ipana tooth paste, replaced by 501 (c) (3) groups aligned with whomever they are aligned with, seeking donations to keep the wrong kind from moving in next door.
So I am not going to look my gift horse in the mouth, or pry into thinking that is none of my business, and just be grateful that something still works in this country without an incentive to lend it favor. My bookish husband appeared today and I introduced them, saying we married in October. I received the sincerest of congratulations, and am buoyed with gratitude and remembrance of things past. I hope your effort with America, America is similarly blessed.
I was a teacher/school administrator for 33 years and retired before the pandemic hit. What gives me hope is seeing my teaching friends and former colleagues step up to the plate every day since last year, take on almost daily challenges, and still want what is best for their students and their learning. I hope that with the new school year, there is a better way forward for improving public education and making schools even better for students, their families and teachers.
Thank you for writing this! I am a teacher and have never worked so hard as I am this school year. I appreciate your acknowledgments and look forward to a new path forward for education. We have learned a lot this year in terms of technology that can be carried forward to future years. I am hopeful for our future and believe that our democracy will prevail. President Biden, VP Harris, Garland, Pelosi, Schumer, Abrams, and other strong Democrats along with organizations that are upholding and pushing forward to preserve our democracy give me hope.
Hope for me comes when it appears we are moving forward. Garland speaking to voting rights protections, discovered information about secret subpoenas from trump administration, local Dems winning seats. Inch by inch we claw our way back.
This is tangentially off-topic but it’s the first thing I thought of when I thought what gives me hope. Music. When I hear music, experience music, play music, that gives me hope. Politics, government, not so much. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives me hope, but I also fear for her safety, and I am angered by how she has been demonized by the right.
I am not optimistic about the state of our politics. After the 2016 election, I joined my Democratic Town Committee, where I have worked to elect Democrats. That is really all I can do. I keep my spirits up by enjoying nature. I am an avid hiker and I spent a lot of time in the last year and a half on Zoom participating in meetings devoted to conservation advocacy.
Earlier this week I had the honor of speaking to a group of teachers as part of a Holocaust education conference. We took a virtual tour of Auschwitz together (surreal and awful) and then I talked about my father’s experience as a child being hunted from country to country by the Nazis and eventually deported to a concentration camp. It’s tough material, but the educators, who ranged from teaching middle school to college, asked excellent questions and gave me so much hope. They, and others like them, are deeply committed to making sure that this terrible history and its lessons are not forgotten.
Thank you for sharing this, Deborah. What's more hopeful than the continuing belief that humans will confront the horrors of their past and may actually learn from them?
I am a retired journalist who has lived and worked in the South and North. I never believed in the theory that racism had truly changed in the last sixty years. What has changed is the growth of the Black population during that period. White people see it and are afraid. I see it as a blessing that Blacks will be in majority in a few more generations. I hope that when that day comes the Blacks will treat my great grandchildren better than we whites have treated them for the past 250 years. That is my hope.
Jonathon Rauch. Braver Angels. The atrong, identifiable majority of Americans who seek cooperation and collaboration. Perseverence furthers. Lake Superior. Every additional day witnessing my sons' improving lives & being there for them. ☮️
I write young adult and middle grade fiction, and it's the kids that I write for that give me hope. I fear for them, too. Many of the novels I've written explore the intersection of being a teen and technology, which fascinates me because I'm old enough that I grew up without most of it. I worry that kids don't have the privacy to make the mistakes that they learn from as teens - social media has made the consequences of any mistake so much bigger. But nonetheless, I learn from "the youths" - they care about their world and they are still open to new ideas in a way that too many of the so-called adults in the room aren't.
Interesting and necessary work. And yes, it sounds like a truism to say we learn from the youths, but in a world accelerating at such a rapid pace, it's true. I also take great strength from the openness of the next generations.
Even though I worry about the world in which my grandchildren are growing up, they are the hope for the future. I watch their parents raise them with good values. They are also trying to instill a sense of community in them. The micro is important - your friends, family, coworkers etc. One has to be good to all they meet - that is one of the ways to change the trajectory. I don’t know if those who are so hateful of everyone can be turned but the rest of us have to continue on the path; be good to everyone and speak out and act.
Sharyn, I agree wholeheartedly. The ones I worry about all my great grandchildren. I’m so afraid for them and I know their parents are too. But as you said they’re being raised with good values. I had a good childhood. The war was over and my parents bought a house. It was a good time and a good town to grow up in.Between the pandemic, the hatred and the guns, this is a scary time for them.
We baby boomers did have more than they did without war or depression. But we lived through assassinations, war, societal unrest, racial strife. We tried to do things differently but money and power are heady drugs
I get hope from the 20 somethings. My daughter is 25 and I speak to her and all of her friends and they are very aware of the situation we are in and want to make changes for the better. They join, they march, they participate. They are hopeful that they will make their own future.
There is one thing, and one thing only, that gives me hope in the future: mindfulness training which can lead to reshaping the neural networks of people. Mindfulness is great for people and their wellbeing in general, but a secondary benefit is that mindfulness actually trains the brain for people to become more compassionate and empathetic. That can only help in our current situations. I am particularly struck by the work of Dr. Dan Siegal from UCLA, founder of Interpersonal Neurobiology (the ways that interactions within and between people impact the human brain,) and Austrian Thomas Hubl, who has worked extensively with traumatized populations who have endured collective and ancestral trauma like the Holocaust, war, genocide, etc. Through his Pocket Project, he is reaching out to healers of all kinds--psychologists, doctors, leaders, political scientists, cultural principals throughout the world--to try to move people, and the collective, to wholeness and wellness. There is a contingent of leaders in the US working on the trauma of racism. We must work at the level of hate, and dismantle it, bit by bit. I personally would like to see some justice taking place as well as we move forward, and I worry about what appears to be complacency. But these movements toward directly impacting individual and collective trauma, and helping the human brain to find its kindness networks do bring me hope.
Thanks for sharing this, Elizabeth. You remind me that there are many paths to addressing the traumas of the past. I remain worried about our capacity to overcome the deeply ingrained patterns that cause so much continuing pain and conflict. So it's intriguing to hear your hope about the role of mindfulness in response.
What gives me hope is knowing how many Americans support democracy, volunteer to get others to vote, make the effort to learn more about the history of injustice. And most of all, what gives me hope is the youngest generation of voters that worked towards all of this before they were 18 years old. Knowledge is power!
I am retired, turned 75 and have been a vigorous man maintaining a great yard in liberal Saint Petersburg, Florida. A heart issue motivated me to marry my long-term male companion last Fall, then put me out of commission for two months in the Spring concluding two weeks ago. The yard suffered, and I found a firm that takes care of mowing and associated tasks, to my relief.
A neighbor with whom I share a city refuse dumpster for bi-weekly collection encountered me slowly depositing yard refuse in the alley dumpster, he a renter whom I term a redneck with junk cars and such littering the yard. He asked about my absence and my property upkeep. I explained that I had been ill, have a list of things to get done, and will try to do what I can as I am able.
This so-called redneck took it upon himself to begin repairing a rotted roof soffit keeping a gutter from staying attached as hurricanes stalk Florida, caulking skylights on a steep roof in the blazing heat, pruning tall, horribly-thorned-though beautiful bougainvillea shrubs, reinforcing privacy fencing slats loosened by tropical winds, and basically doing everything on my list of hellish chores for the aging homeowner.
Offers of cash for wages are refused, trips to hardware stores are made for me with the costs fronted by the neighbor.
How can this be? A fat angel in flip flops makes possible scratching off the most troublesome items on my list of things to do lest this house be left with yawning problems to my husband when I get my summons to join the innumerable caravan of the beyond, as shall we all. What is on my active mind had been his motivation, which I now accept as neighborly, like America used to be. But then I want to know for whom he voted, and his opinions on letting the Russians into our election discussions, and how our GOP government in Florida is aligned with Satan, don't you agree?
Then I remember that we didn't used to ask people about their politics before we offered to fix their flat tire, or take a casserole to the home of a bereaved neighbor, however they kept their yard or with whom they associated. And I get almost teary thinking of a Norman Rockwell painting of a New Englander at a town meeting, nervously speaking his piece as we Americans were noted for doing. And that is all gone with Ipana tooth paste, replaced by 501 (c) (3) groups aligned with whomever they are aligned with, seeking donations to keep the wrong kind from moving in next door.
So I am not going to look my gift horse in the mouth, or pry into thinking that is none of my business, and just be grateful that something still works in this country without an incentive to lend it favor. My bookish husband appeared today and I introduced them, saying we married in October. I received the sincerest of congratulations, and am buoyed with gratitude and remembrance of things past. I hope your effort with America, America is similarly blessed.
I was a teacher/school administrator for 33 years and retired before the pandemic hit. What gives me hope is seeing my teaching friends and former colleagues step up to the plate every day since last year, take on almost daily challenges, and still want what is best for their students and their learning. I hope that with the new school year, there is a better way forward for improving public education and making schools even better for students, their families and teachers.
Thank you for writing this! I am a teacher and have never worked so hard as I am this school year. I appreciate your acknowledgments and look forward to a new path forward for education. We have learned a lot this year in terms of technology that can be carried forward to future years. I am hopeful for our future and believe that our democracy will prevail. President Biden, VP Harris, Garland, Pelosi, Schumer, Abrams, and other strong Democrats along with organizations that are upholding and pushing forward to preserve our democracy give me hope.
Hope for me comes when it appears we are moving forward. Garland speaking to voting rights protections, discovered information about secret subpoenas from trump administration, local Dems winning seats. Inch by inch we claw our way back.
TRUMP OUT...BIDEN IN!!! WOW....WHAT A RUSH THAT WAS!!!! I SLEEP AT NIGHTS NOW!!!
This is tangentially off-topic but it’s the first thing I thought of when I thought what gives me hope. Music. When I hear music, experience music, play music, that gives me hope. Politics, government, not so much. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives me hope, but I also fear for her safety, and I am angered by how she has been demonized by the right.
Not tangential in my view. Music uplifts. Music illuminates the better side of humans--our capacity to create beauty and redefine space and time.
I am not optimistic about the state of our politics. After the 2016 election, I joined my Democratic Town Committee, where I have worked to elect Democrats. That is really all I can do. I keep my spirits up by enjoying nature. I am an avid hiker and I spent a lot of time in the last year and a half on Zoom participating in meetings devoted to conservation advocacy.
Earlier this week I had the honor of speaking to a group of teachers as part of a Holocaust education conference. We took a virtual tour of Auschwitz together (surreal and awful) and then I talked about my father’s experience as a child being hunted from country to country by the Nazis and eventually deported to a concentration camp. It’s tough material, but the educators, who ranged from teaching middle school to college, asked excellent questions and gave me so much hope. They, and others like them, are deeply committed to making sure that this terrible history and its lessons are not forgotten.
Thank you for sharing this, Deborah. What's more hopeful than the continuing belief that humans will confront the horrors of their past and may actually learn from them?
This is the group that organized the conference: https://www.toli.us/ I will support them going forward in whatever way I can.
I am a retired journalist who has lived and worked in the South and North. I never believed in the theory that racism had truly changed in the last sixty years. What has changed is the growth of the Black population during that period. White people see it and are afraid. I see it as a blessing that Blacks will be in majority in a few more generations. I hope that when that day comes the Blacks will treat my great grandchildren better than we whites have treated them for the past 250 years. That is my hope.
Jonathon Rauch. Braver Angels. The atrong, identifiable majority of Americans who seek cooperation and collaboration. Perseverence furthers. Lake Superior. Every additional day witnessing my sons' improving lives & being there for them. ☮️
A strong list!
I write young adult and middle grade fiction, and it's the kids that I write for that give me hope. I fear for them, too. Many of the novels I've written explore the intersection of being a teen and technology, which fascinates me because I'm old enough that I grew up without most of it. I worry that kids don't have the privacy to make the mistakes that they learn from as teens - social media has made the consequences of any mistake so much bigger. But nonetheless, I learn from "the youths" - they care about their world and they are still open to new ideas in a way that too many of the so-called adults in the room aren't.
Interesting and necessary work. And yes, it sounds like a truism to say we learn from the youths, but in a world accelerating at such a rapid pace, it's true. I also take great strength from the openness of the next generations.
Even though I worry about the world in which my grandchildren are growing up, they are the hope for the future. I watch their parents raise them with good values. They are also trying to instill a sense of community in them. The micro is important - your friends, family, coworkers etc. One has to be good to all they meet - that is one of the ways to change the trajectory. I don’t know if those who are so hateful of everyone can be turned but the rest of us have to continue on the path; be good to everyone and speak out and act.
Sharyn, I agree wholeheartedly. The ones I worry about all my great grandchildren. I’m so afraid for them and I know their parents are too. But as you said they’re being raised with good values. I had a good childhood. The war was over and my parents bought a house. It was a good time and a good town to grow up in.Between the pandemic, the hatred and the guns, this is a scary time for them.
We baby boomers did have more than they did without war or depression. But we lived through assassinations, war, societal unrest, racial strife. We tried to do things differently but money and power are heady drugs
I get hope from the 20 somethings. My daughter is 25 and I speak to her and all of her friends and they are very aware of the situation we are in and want to make changes for the better. They join, they march, they participate. They are hopeful that they will make their own future.
There is one thing, and one thing only, that gives me hope in the future: mindfulness training which can lead to reshaping the neural networks of people. Mindfulness is great for people and their wellbeing in general, but a secondary benefit is that mindfulness actually trains the brain for people to become more compassionate and empathetic. That can only help in our current situations. I am particularly struck by the work of Dr. Dan Siegal from UCLA, founder of Interpersonal Neurobiology (the ways that interactions within and between people impact the human brain,) and Austrian Thomas Hubl, who has worked extensively with traumatized populations who have endured collective and ancestral trauma like the Holocaust, war, genocide, etc. Through his Pocket Project, he is reaching out to healers of all kinds--psychologists, doctors, leaders, political scientists, cultural principals throughout the world--to try to move people, and the collective, to wholeness and wellness. There is a contingent of leaders in the US working on the trauma of racism. We must work at the level of hate, and dismantle it, bit by bit. I personally would like to see some justice taking place as well as we move forward, and I worry about what appears to be complacency. But these movements toward directly impacting individual and collective trauma, and helping the human brain to find its kindness networks do bring me hope.
Thanks for sharing this, Elizabeth. You remind me that there are many paths to addressing the traumas of the past. I remain worried about our capacity to overcome the deeply ingrained patterns that cause so much continuing pain and conflict. So it's intriguing to hear your hope about the role of mindfulness in response.
What gives me hope is knowing how many Americans support democracy, volunteer to get others to vote, make the effort to learn more about the history of injustice. And most of all, what gives me hope is the youngest generation of voters that worked towards all of this before they were 18 years old. Knowledge is power!