Hope is a Thing Best Gently Held

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See Update Articles at Bottom of Post.
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Hope is a thing
best gently held
for when too tightly squeezed,
like soap,
it slips our grip
and brings us fumbling
to our knees,
grasping all around
and lost
'til Faith is found--
that frayed and knotted rope
that fits the human hand,
that strand of hope
and proof of things unseen
from age to age
and all that's in between.
© Copyright ,2009, TK, Patterns of Ink
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"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1

I wrote this poem a few weeks ago in an entirely non-political context to suggest that while hope is a fine thing, and life is sad when hopes and dreams seem to be slipping from our hands, there is actually something that "trumps" hope, and it has the power to sustain mankind without depending on a man.

When I began Paronus Incognitus, it was because a certain slogan "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN" struck me as five words that begged the question, five words that had the burden of proof. As any college debater knows, the team presenting the proposition for CHANGE always has the burden of proof. Gripe as we might about the status quo, there are reasons it's in place, and those who would change it must first prove that the change is indeed an improvement, that the presumed "cure" is not worse than the alleged disease.

So it was and remains my intent to keep a spot light on that CHANGE as it takes place. I want to clarify, however, that it will never be my goal to lose HOPE as I hold that spot light, and in time I trust readers will also sense that it is FAITH (and not any man) that sustains my hope.

"CHANGE WITH IMPUNITY" would be a more accurate slogan. "CHANGE YOU CAN'T STOP AND WE DON'T HAVE TO TALK ABOUT" has thus far been the tone. In fact, truth is, thus far the CHANGE has looked like the same old cast of characters (except this time they have tax evasion issues) proposing the same old liberal "throw money at it" solutions to their understanding of what's broken (without fully understanding it was such bad ideas that broke it in the first place). I was hoping CHANGE would also produce legitimate debate in congress, so far not much actual debate has been allowed since the Dems have the power to proceed without GOP support.

CHANGE should always be under fire so that only the best CHANGE comes about. The trick is not scorching our national HOPE in the process.

But as Charles Krauthammer pointed out Friday, "So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared 'we have chosen hope over fear.' Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill."

Irony of ironies,....The most iconic image of 2008 Presidential Election has now itself become a source of controversy as the president hopes fear will help sell a liberal wish list.

"NEW YORK (AP) - On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.
Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

"The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees." [excerpt of article by Hillel Italie, AP National Writer]

And in closing... a few words from the one who got away....



Update: Feb. 9, 2009 Article by Rick Moran:

"[Obama is a] president who, for all his rhetorical gifts, can't seem to muster the words that would give the American people the one thing desperately needed at this point in American history -- hope. That's right. The candidate of "Hope and Change" has decided to be a president who espouses "Fear and Loathing." Fear of financial Armageddon unless we do as we are told and blindly give in to his $900 billion panic panacea for the economy...It is a far cry from the way Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan handled economic crises....Obama does not want Americans to believe in themselves. He wants them to believe in him..."

Is that what S.C. Governor Mark Sanford meant when he said we are headed toward a "saviour-based economy"?

Read David Keene's article: From hope to doomsday "It’s almost as if our new 'transformational' president is himself being transformed into a character from a New Yorker cartoon or, worse, into Jimmy Carter. The optimistic campaign has been replaced almost overnight by a sort of whining pessimism that is, well, unbecoming of a president. Obama keeps reminding those who disagree with him that it was he who won in November. This political defeat has convinced the president that those who oppose his views should simply abandon their views and principles as unpopular, unworkable and destined for the scrap heap of history."

And here's another good column from one of my favorite liberals, Camille Paglia.