We all need some hope.

There are many issues locally and globally that bring despair to my life.  I try to watch and read the news everyday to further educate myself on local and global issues.  I find the news to be rather depressing.  I feel like a lot of the time the news is only a means of entertainment.  Crime is up, the economy is in the toilet, and the war doesn’t seem to be getting any closer to an end.  Families locally and globally are getting hit very hard by this war.  When will it stop?

The good thing is that there is an election coming up that brings promises of hope in our future.  The candidates are promising everything under the sun to get elected.  Gas prices will be lowered, there will be uniformed health care, they’ll put a stop to the War, and they will provide aid to families on the verge of losing their homes, and so on.  All of this really sounds great, if it is true.  We need a little hope in today’s world where everything seems to be going downhill fast.  

I’ve seen families losing there homes and jobs because of the crash in our economy.  Those who were not lucky enough or eligible to get a fixed-rate mortgage are now suffering and can no longer afford their house payments.  Some have been really unlucky and on top of losing their homes, they have lost family members in the war as well.  There is no starting over for these families, just searching for hope that things will get better.

Despite all the despair in America, many people seek this land out in hope of a better life.  In the book Jasmine by Author Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine and her husband seek a new life in America, leaving their small Indian Village behind.  Before Jasmine had the chance to leave her village on their journey to America, she was widowed at the young age of seventeen.  Jasmine and her late husband had a great deal of hope that America would make all their dreams come true.  Things couldn’t get any worse than what they were experiencing in India.  Jasmine illegally travels to United States to start a new life. 

The Author tells a great story of desperation and hope.  Jasmine shows us that there is a lot you could do with hope.  It is amazing to me that as bad as we think things are in America, people in other areas of the world are still desperate to live here.  I see a lot going on with illegal immigration issues right now.  Efforts are being made to put a stop to all the illegal immigrants overfilling our schools and taking jobs away from Americans.

I met several illegal immigrants while I was working construction it the Bay Area.  Some of those people would send their entire paycheck home, so their families could have a better life.  The amount they could make in America in a week would support their entire family for a month in their home country.  When I got to know these illegal immigrants I realized that they were people.  It changed some of my opinions on our immigration laws.  However, a lot them didn’t pay taxes and had children in our school system.  As Americans we pay for those things and that is why the issue is not black and white.  I can agree with both sides of the argument.  On one hand I have a friend who is in this country illegally and who spent a week walking through the desert to cross the border.  On the other hand I have a cousin who works for the Border Patrol and every day catches people and sends them away. 

It is true that Jasmine had more opportunities to make a better life for herself in America.  Even though she had some hurdles to get over, Jasmine was able to find a good job and love and freedom here.  I think her decision to come to America was the right one, and I think the same is true for many immigrants.

Another big topic, more locally, is gay marriage.  This is obviously a very controversial topic for many people.  I’ve encountered many people on either side of the fence.  I think the law that recently passed allowing gays to marry in California was a fantastic new development in human rights.  I’ll just say that I think it is a wonderful thing to be able to marry your loved one, regardless of your color, sex, religion, etc.  I feel that we are getting somewhere with bold decisions like this one.  There was a time when interracial marriage or courtship was looked down upon.  It still is in some places around the world, including right here in America. 

I recently read a book by Bessie Head called “A Question of Power”.  Bessie had suffered from this sort of racial discrimination.  Her mother was a white women living in South Africa when she got pregnant with Bessie.  Her father was a black stable boy.  In 1937, when Bessie was born, having a bi-racial child was frowned upon.  Her mother was put into a mental hospital for her actions.  Although this was great time ago, there are still people in today’s society that feel this is wrong.

Every once in a while when I’m around distant family members or friends of friends and I hear some derogatory remarks about another race, I’m baffled.  It’s hard to believe that there are still people out there with these beliefs.  What makes people think their race or preferences are the right ones?  What kind of world would it be if we where all the same?

If we have nothing to look forward to, what’s the point of moving on?  We need hope in our world to compensate for the despair locally and globally.  Both books mentioned earlier are great motivational stories that make you feel like you can do something to change the direction in which you are living your life. We have a lot of work to do before people can see the glass half full, because right now the glass is looking half empty.