Why Hope, When Hope seems Lost

Many close and dear friends are in shell shock, one tragedy of insanity after another continuously buffets them and all of us. As I too walk in this maize, I look back to the solid rock my ancestors, forced into slavery, their children who had to endure continual rebuffs and disappointments (as the illusion of freedom was often over shadowed with hate, violence, and denial), and their children who dreamed of a better day was just around the corner, and my self -who witnessed the hope of the 60s burn with the deaths of the martyrs and the election of short sighted political pundits whose only claim to fame was that they rejected anything progressive. But through it all, my people held fast to that rock, stood their ground, and persevered through the insanity. It's more than resilience, it's more than survival, and it's more than mere determination. No, it's a stubbornness borne from the soul, purified in the cauldron of infinity, and manifested in the spiritual strivings of a people that refuse(d) to give up, give in, or give out. This stubbornness that walked into the fiery furnace of America's racial angst and came out whole. This stubbornness that rose from the abyss of America's collective amnesia, collective denial, and collective rebuff and said hell no, not now, not then, not ever. This stubbornness that ran through the tunnels of oppression, the valleys of deceit, and the pits of despair that blossomed with each new wave of neglect, persecution, and oppression. Why Hope? Simple, what other choice does one have when being down seems like looking up. Why Hope? Because to do otherwise is to give in to the victimizers without souls, to shun the ancestors, and to make of their sacrifice trivial pursuits into the mundane. No, it is at these times particularly that soul, gospel, blues, reggae, hip-hop, and the creative surges of a people that would/could not be denied cried out and declared -"Hell Naw, I/We ain't the one, not today, not tomorrow, not gonna happen."