Existential Punk

Got Hope? Harvey Milk

i LOVE this video because Harvey Milk understands the concept of HOPE for ALL HUMAN BEINGS, including the LGBTQ community and African Americans. Also, i believe that if he were still alive today, he would include MUSLIMS, PALESTINIANS, ISRAELIS, AFGHANIS, AFRICANS, ABUSED & TRAFFICKED PEOPLE and MORE. Let us never give up on hope!

The context of the video is this: Harvey Milk was the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in the United States in 1977. This is his famous speech, “You Cannot Live On Hope Alone,” given in 1978, shortly before he was assassinated. Here's some of the text of the speech:

 "The American Dream starts with neighborhoods. If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods. To sit on the front steps -- whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city -- is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color... Yesterday, my esteemed colleague on the board said we cannot live on hope alone. I know that...The important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it. If the story of Don Quixote means anything, it means that the spirit of life is just as important as its substance."

Afghanistan & Hope

 i really enjoy meeting people from different cultural backgrounds, so today i was excited to meet my very first Afghani, and here in little ol' Richmond, Virginia no less! He was working at the Exxon where i stopped to buy a bottle of water, and while ringing up my purchase i asked him where he was from. He told me that in addition to living in the USA he had lived in the Soviet Union. i asked him how he liked it here and he proceeded to tell me he liked it pretty well. i asked him if he missed home and he said he did very much. i told him how i had lived over seas for a couple of years and as much as i enjoyed it, it was way easier to live at home because i understood how things worked, how to get things done and where to go with much more ease than when i lived abroad. He smiled as he agreed. i asked him if he thought things would ever change in his country for the better, and his answer was that he had hope that things would change.

i love how Harvey Milk says, 'You Cannot Live on Hope Alone...but you can't live without it either.' Barack Obama also talks how he is not idealistic but has hope in what the collective 'WE' can accomplish together. i live in a rather peaceful and safe country, never experienced war-torn areas in my entire life, and i meet this young man from a country entrenched in war after war with different nations believing in hope for the future well-being and success of his homeland. This Afghan man is truly an inspiration to me. May i continue to have hope in all areas of my life personally and for my country. What do you think?