Hope, America.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. That's the definition. Thomas Fuller said, “If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.” At a time of economic crisis, war and a diminished standing in the world, hope seems to be the thing America longs for most, even more so than it does for familiarity, for apple pie.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope appears most present, ironically, when things seem most hopeless. The Hope Survivors Foundation, for instance, which gives assistance to those impacted and/or traumatized by the Rwandan genocide, was born out of a great, looming tragedy. The Cancer Hope Foundation, which offers a cost-free camp retreat for adult cancer patients and their friends and families, was born out of one grieving individual’s loss of a close friend.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

About 41,650 females in America are named Hope. At least that number of people, then, must have felt hopeful about the future through their child at one time or another. In the film W, the character of Vice President Dick Cheney asks the character of President George Bush, Jr. a question of probability. The question, and I write this loosely from memory, was “Would you eat that piece of lettuce if there was a 1% chance that it could kill you?” Bush’s answer, no, is used to illustrate that the fact fear eliminates peoples willingness to risk, to hope.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Some call hope an audacious thing, and in the America of today with its economic crisis, its wars and its diminished standing in the world, it most certainly is. Hope today requires a willingness to risk, to believe, to have faith- but what is more American than that? Hope IS America; without it, our country would not exist.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. It's what caused people to leave the familiar behind and sail from Europe to Plymouth in 1620. It's what drives people to cross fenced-off borders and risk their lives to be part of this country today. It is the thing that will drive thousands of voters who haven’t voted in twenty years to booths on November 4th, where they’ll be joined by thousands of other voters who have never voted in their lives.

Hope: a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. During his 2004 keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, a little-known senator from Illinois said, “In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?” On November 4th, America will decide once again.