As coronavirus infections and deaths soar out of control, and hospitals approach and exceed capacity while healthcare workers are stretched to the breaking point, several promising vaccines are in development and some have been approved for human immunization. We can now see an increasing bright light at the end of what has been a long and dank, dark tunnel. And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
As we witness, with increasing rapidity, police harassment and killings of unarmed black and brown people in the United States and other Western countries, progressive coalitions of grassroots activities are increasingly coming together to demand that “enough is enough.” And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
As the Trump administration has waged an assaultive and destructive battle against the Earth by bulldozing dozens of environmental regulations aimed at improving the quality of the air, water and ground, and which had once protected our ever-shrinking forest reserves; with the dynamic and growing youth environmental movement demanding a better and cleaner future by reducing our carbon footprint with clean renewable energy sources and a massive reduction in non-biodegradable consumption; together with the incoming Biden-Harris administration, which has committed to protecting our environment; we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
As Donald Trump cries “fraud” in his stunning defeat in the presidential election; and as more than 100 Republican House Representatives and 17 Republican attorneys-general have joined with the Texas state attorney-general in bringing a lawsuit to the US Supreme Court to overturn election results in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, most constitutional scholars assert – in legal parlance – that their effort has as much chance as the proverbial snowball in hell. And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
As Donald Trump restocked the Washington, DC, swamp with unqualified and corrupt sycophants engaged in deep conflicts of interests in the positions they held, we witness the new Biden-Harris administration choosing career professionals whose expertise will assist the nation in getting back on track to perform the peoples’ business rather than jumping to the whip of a narcissistic bully-in-chief. And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
As more and more businesses have been forced to close resulting in countless layoffs of people who have lost their savings, their homes, and any financial security they may have had, which has increased the already rampant problem of homelessness and food insecurity; and as Congress deadlocks on passing a COVID-related stimulus package to assist those in most need; help may be on the horizon as a new administration is installed in Washington, and when increasing numbers of people agree to take the vaccine. And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
While patriarchal white supremacist neo-Nazis have moved from the fringes to the center of society with encouraging words and actions from the Republican Party, coalitional organizing activities by We the People are pushing them back to the margins. And we light a candle of hope and possibilities.
While our infrastructure crumbles and falls, our healthcare system is under assault, inhumane immigration policies remain, as we have been thrust into global isolation, as the injury and death toll from gun violence steadily rises, and as the expanding wage and wealth gap increases as does the inequitable education system and digital divide, and as civil and human rights face fierce push-back, we can find comfort in the words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
And as we individually and together light a candle of hope and possibilities, we can use the spark, the heat and the glow of our brilliant candle to light our way toward a better, more equitable, more just, more compassionate and more communal future.
Look around us. Sunshine appears on the horizon.