Hope and Change

When did hope and change become dirty words? Maybe it was the same moment that compromise became synonymous with weakness. I have a feeling that the conflation of the interests of party & country and corporation and individual citizen have a role. I also think the blacklisting of logic and reason as elitist and practically un-American is involved. If you profit from the status quo, change is something to fear and belittle. If you don't believe in the power of human reason, hope might be hard. Hope is not belief. Hope requires agency. It requires imagination. It requires reason and understanding. It requires humility. Hope requires help. Hope is just an acceptance that things aren't perfect and never will be, but that together we can make them better. To me, that doesn't seem like something that should be controversial or the property of a particular party. It doesn't seem like a dirty word. It seems like something we all should want ... we all should have. It's too bad more people don't feel the same way, but I am hopeful that can change.