The young folks created handmade books that told the stories of their families and elders and made giant papier-mache puppets of Cesar Chavez and the Rev. Martin Luther King for local civil rights parades. We are all hope. To sustain an actionable belief in justice, people need hope. She stands there with the poor when they see their strength in others. When hope is present, people imagine a new world.
Imagination is the creativity of change.
All of those parts are respected, attended and accepted. Hope is heroic. She makes us heroic if we believe in her when no one else will. Sometimes, hope is all there is to prevent the spirit from breaking as it faces the destruction of injustice. Even as villagers under right-wing military siege flee again to the Chiapas jungles, or in frantic phone calls for international solidarity or in the trial of Esperanza, hope survives to lead us.