Bernie Hope (courtesy: David Horsey/Los Angeles Times)
This image by David Horsey from Bernie’s first campaign will resonate with Bernie supporters everywhere. It has helped me through some rough times. We’ve felt it before and are feeling it now. The fight between ideologies is harsh and unrelenting. We all have our own ideals of a world that we can believe in. We all feel like we have the right solutions to fix all that is broken. Or maybe we have the hope for those solutions. I know that I do.
It hurts to be in the same place we were before. The world is in a scary place at the moment, and the solutions are not living up to each new crisis. Nor are the leaders. So, it’s up to us to become the new leaders.
For too long, we’ve been told that dreams are foolish and not realistic. All I have to say to that is: Why doesn’t status quo prove it this time?! Why do the dreamers have to keep proving that their dreams are stronger than our collective realities? Our current lives are showing that dreams have become necessary to stand up to the actual world that we all inhabit.
We’re way beyond politics. We’re way beyond policies. We are now in times that call for visions. A vision for a truly equitable world in which all of us can thrive…EQUALLY. A world that remakes all that is broken by building new structures from the ground up. Not physical structures, but aspirational actions that create new foundations for the world to stand on. Foundations that protect all living things, including this very planet that we all rely upon. Foundations that ensure that we all get what we need without compromises. Foundations that give us respect equally. Foundations that do not split, but gather. Foundations that allow us all to reach for the stars.
THANK YOU, Bernie, for giving many of us the opportunity to be heard. Our ideals are still very much alive, and Bernie is not going anywhere. Neither are we. We have to keep drawing out the world that we want to live in together. Bernie may be stepping out of a light, but he is not stepping out of the light. It’s the light that we’ve shown on his message from Day 1. And that light is only getting brighter as more see where his path is leading. It’s always been about the message. We just need to remember that each and every day we move forward…together.
BERNIE, You continue to be an inspiration. Never stop being you.
