that it isn’t simply the idealism of an age gone by

It is always this. I mentioned Angela Davis’ book and in it she makes the point that we celebrate these monumental moments because they tell us a story. A story of democracy triumphant. But those events they weren’t in reality 100% monumental, they were big yes, but always the details paint a complex story.

It isn’t an age gone by because it is an age that hasn’t come. And it’s not an age to ever come. It’s an idea, a dream, a thing for us to work towards always. If you ever look at the Great Seal of the United States you’ll notice an incomplete pyramid. It’s to symbolize that our work is never done. Because the people who created this nation knew, democracy was never going to be a government that could ever be a one and done situation.

The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it.

— Thomas Jefferson

American history is not something dead and over. It is always alive, always growing, always unfinished.

— John F. Kennedy

The unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us.

— Barack Obama

If bad faith in kind breeds more bad faith and our own good faith is weaponized against the public good, then what?

The young. For all the ills and failures of society that old people seem to mete out, it is routinely the young that cure it.

It is short sighted, but just what else am I supposed to see beyond the cliff we’re hurtling towards?

That is perhaps the most beautiful thing about all of this. You cannot see beyond the cliff, it’s not short sighted, it’s being pragmatic. Big ideas like equality and democracy these are things that ask us to look past what’s in front of us.

And for that reasons is why it is faith in each other that we’re going to make this world better for the younger generations, that we will somehow provide the children of this world the tools that they need to continue onward with this unfinished work. There’s a saying, I’m likely to butcher it, but it goes “nothing of value was obtained with ease.” I know that faith is routinely shaken in this world, but though you cannot see it we must hold faith that we will keep going.

And I am no person of religion so faith in something isn’t something that I just peg as ordained or providence will see us though. The faith I speak of is found in people. I have seen people come together in common cause to set off change. Heck, we’ve mentioned a few in our previous comments. People are strong and that strength is what strikes fear in all those who bring the ills we’re talking about in this world.

That’s how you know it’s true, if there was no strength, they would not spend so much energy trying to divide us. They, the ruling class and rich, know this already and sometimes it’s difficult for us to believe.

I see younger kids these days and goddamn are they clever as hell. Young and unbridled at times yes, but they seems to be keenly aware of the shoddy situation they’ve been placed into and seem more than ever willing to address it. Sometimes a bit misguided, but that’s just inexperience not malice.

You know sometimes I listen to that song by Louis Armstrong, What A Wonderful World. The man lived through two world wars and segregation, what wonderful world could he have been talking about? And I am starting to see it now. He’s talking about potential in this world. He lived in the “the worse” for him and the children he sees are born ahead of that with all the unseen possibilities ahead of them.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know. And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I know that there’s going to be a world I cannot even imagine, that’s going to make the world I live in feel shameful. And I know that, because I have faith that it will come to pass. Maybe it is false hope, maybe we will not turn the wheel before we get to the cliff. But buying into the notion that it is a false hope seems to sell short the limitless possibilities this world can be made into and the great strength of the people who inhabit this world.