"This country doesn't need another building. It needs hope."

SeattleGirl

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Thu Mar-20-08 12:59 AM
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"This country doesn't need another building. It needs hope."

Those are the final two lines in "V for Vendetta", a movie I know a lot of people here on DU have seen. It's become one of my favorite movies.

Hilary Clinton has put Barack Obama down for talking about hope; many of her supporters have also done that. Why? What is wrong with hope? God knows we've been kicked to the curb again and again by this administration. We've been battered, and beaten, and lied to, and told, by their actions, that we don't count. Even today, in response to a question about continuing this war, even though the majority of people don't support it, Dick Cheney responded, "So?" It made it clear, yet again, that We The People don't matter, as long as he and his are getting what they want.

They don't care if we are losing our men and women in an illegal war. They don't care that we are losing our jobs, our homes, our health care. "So?" is their response.

I have felt helpless, and hopeless, and down and out. For me, hope IS important. Is it the only thing? Of course not. But it's also not nothing. For those who say that Obama is ONLY about hope, I say, no he's not. I've read his positions on the issues on his website. Have you? I've also read Hilary's too, as I was an Edwards supporter,and then had to choose a new candidate.

I have listened to Obama and to Clinton, and Obama lifts me up. Does he tell me that all I have to do is hope? No. Does he offer only hope? No. Does he imply that he has the mojo to make everything better? No. But he has the belief that if we work together, we CAN get many things done. And he offers hope that we CAN. If I didn't have that, I wouldn't believe that there is something we can do to turn things around.

Hope can get us started, and can keep us going. To me, it's not empty rhetoric; it's energy we can use to help us put one foot in front of the other, to put the shoulder to the wheel, to inspire us to find different and better ways to do things. Hope can be a powerful thing, and it's something we badly need.

For those of you who support Hilary Clinton, can you tell me you don't hope she wins the nomination? Can you tell me that you don't have some measure of hope that things can and will get better if she is nominated?

Barack Obama is not just about hope, but it is part of who he is, and part of what ultimately drew me to him. Some of you will scoff; I don't care. I support Obama for many reasons, and hope IS one of them. And I dare say, if I supported Hilary Clinton, I would feel some hope too, that things could change for the better. I have reasons why I don't support her, but I didn't post this to run down the reasons. I posted because I wanted to tell you why I don't think hope is a bad thing.

And before I go, I'll leave you with another little bit about hope, from another movie, "The Shawshank Redemption":

Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.