manifesto of hope

Thinking about thinking

I’ve holed up here in my dim library cubicle to write my last will and testament, my manifesto for hope. I will abandon logical criticism and everything I have learned. I will write for myself and for my reader. There is no need for apologies. I will battle the skeptical spirit growing inside me and I will focus on the hope and goodness I find inherent in humanity.
Achieving any ideal is no easy task. Moving the entire world beyond petty bickering is only an idea and not a solution. “The New York Times” reappears on the racks scattered around campus and every morning the world is brought before our eyes to be examined, scrutinized and criticized. World leaders are failing their people. Corporate CEOs are greedy thieves. Men, women and children are brutally murdered and tortured. Often they are innocent. Occasionally they are not.
As the ephemeral wide-eyed optimism of a college freshman sinks into murky visions of cynicism, I struggle. Four years later that freshman is agonizing over the economy, finding a job and paying rent. Will he compromise his ideals? Will he succumb to the pressures of just getting by? I imagine we all will at some moment. However, there is still a feeling within us; a small part of every person’s being which desires something better. Grasping this is my goal.
Let us move forward, focus on the future, live in the present and keep the past in the back of our minds. If it sounds paradoxical, then I think we have landed near the truth. There are moments when life seems so simple and good. There are moments when communities gather together to support a cause. There are those brief moments when it seems the world can be turned around.
For me, this moment is captured by Empty Bowls. A community gathers together and everyone gains. Young and old alike smile broad simple smiles as they fill their newly glazed bowls with delicious soup. Students, locals, businesses and churches all lend their hands. There is a feeling of community: a feeling that these people have all gathered together and set aside their differences to help someone else.
I am attracted to a presidential candidate who shares this feeling as well. This is my unabashed plug for Barack Obama. There have been too many divisions created in a world that operates on a national and global scale. Even if Obama were to fail miserably, I am attracted to his message of hope. He professes to be able to bring people from every race, religion and political party together .
I believe we all want the same things. We are veered off track by extraneous ideals and wild misunderstandings. At some point, even terrorists, the evil terrorists, are just people who want to live happily. It sounds naïve, but I believe we all feel this. Have you ever wondered, for only a split second, what makes us so different that we refuse to just get along? Do you still wonder?
Moving forward and bringing together international and local communities requires more than a great dogmatic ideology. This requires understanding differences before condemning them. This requires keeping an open dialogue. This requires placing trust in people whom we do not want to trust. This requires being flexible and thinking while we act. This all rests on keeping an open mind and understanding life from more than one point of view.
With no tried and trusted recipe, this is a start. This is hope. This may be all we have.
As rejection letters and loan payments arrive, as the world agonizes in confusion, as politicians try rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, it is easy to surrender. But there is no Man getting us down. There is only you and I, here, trying to move along.
In 10 years, where will we be? I can hope that you and I will not fall prey to cynicism and practical solutions. I can know we must be somewhere. I only want to suggest that we learn to work together. I want to suggest that you and I should never lose hope.

* ryan hamilton, Juniatian April 17th, 2008