not to sound like someone's mother pointing out that that tuna casserole would be really welcome to those kids in Ethiopia, dangit, but our stupid president, for all the damage his administration has done (and I do NOT mean to trivialize it, however because I am absolutely anti-partisan I feel I should also mention that '92 through '00 saw a fair amount of damage dealt, just in some different ways, some of them less immediately obvious and trickle-down effects of poor Clintonian decision making have been felt and blamed on the wrong parties, pun on parties not intended) has not done anything irreversible, and we still have it over the vast majority of the world. thirteen months before there is light at the end of the tunnel, like... that must sound like a cakewalk to someone who's been living in Cuba or China or Iran.

it's easy to be discouraged. it's easy to be cynical. I totally know. and you who've given so much must surely be tired -- I don't blame you for wanting to lay the banner down. but despair won't change our country or our world. my hope is necessary. I think that the more people who truly believe in a better tomorrow, really truly feel it and can see it when they close their eyes, no matter the odds, I think that that does make a difference, the waves of good feeling pass from one person to the next and with each small act of kindness and enlightenment, so does my balloon grow ever larger, brighter, and shinier.