From Howard Zinn....signs of hope

"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions toparticipate in the process of change. Small acts, whenmultiplied by millions of people, can transform theworld. Even when we don't "win," there is fun andfulfillment in the fact that we have been involved,with other good people, in something worthwhile. Weneed hope. An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe,slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To behopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. Itis based on the fact that human history is a historynot only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice,courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in thiscomplex history will determine our lives. If we seeonly the worst, it destroys our capacity to dosomething. If we remember those times and places-andthere are so many-where people have behavedmagnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and atleast the possibility of sending this spinning top of aworld in a different direction. And if we do act, inhowever small a way, we don't have to wait for somegrand utopian future. The future is an infinitesuccession of presents, and to live now as we thinkhuman beings should live, in defiance of all that isbad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."