text: The heroine of this story was born in a small town called Hope shortly after WWII. Her parents and grandparents thought she was a sign that hope was indeed alive in the world, and so they all agreed to name her Hope. Little Hope grew strong of limb and mind. Most of the time she was sweet tempered, although as a toddler she would occasionally stamp her little foot and stand her ground when she was told to do something she didn’t want to hear or do. Her parents didn’t chastise her figuring that in this world there would be times she would need to stand her ground. They encouraged her to talk about her feelings and steadily that became her “go to” when she was frustrated. She grew up with a lot of love and creativity in her life. She read before she went to school. She played and laughed; dreamed and imagined; read and thought about many things. Her mother read to her from stories that filled her with courage and hope. Her father told her stories based on his life. Her father’s stories imbued her with a love for her country’s beauty and the democratic republic that governed her country. As a young adult, she came to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Constitution, as well as the history of her country that aligned with the Constitution and the history that tested the Constitution. She came to understand that it was a living document and found the amendments to be especially interesting. All of this reading and thinking gave her hope for a better world that lived in her heart and mind guiding her choices all along the way. As a young woman, she proudly voted in every election local, state, and national, because she could. She was well aware that American women had struggled to achieve their suffrage, as well as the same rights as American men, such as owning property and having their own bank account. She lived through the Civil Rights movement and participated in small ways then as events stirred her consciousness more and more to see the needs of others to ensure the promise of the American dream was accessible to all Americans. This fueled her hope for a better world that lived in her heart and mind guiding her choices all along the way. She worked for peace because she abhorred war. She got a college education and became a teacher. As a spiritually curious American, she explored various belief systems and eventually settled into a widely inclusive belief based on both Western and Eastern teachings and love, always love. This strengthened her hope for a better world that lived in her heart and mind guiding her choices all along the way. She fell in love and married. She devoted herself to opening minds and hearts in much the same way she planted and grew gardens. It was a full and purposeful life. Like all lives, there were sorrows, as well as joys. She bore the deaths of her husband, mother, and father with as much grace as she could muster. Years later, she was fortunate to marry a loving and kind man who fully shared life’s joys and sorrows with her. Throughout all these years, she held strongly to hope for peace, a good harvest, the power of love, and a viable working democracy based on the Constitution and the rule of law. Environmental issues became her passion because of her understanding that all life required clean air, water, soil, and food to not only survive but to thrive. She engaged in citizenship work by writing representatives, senators, and presidents about her concerns. Thus, she exercised her right as an American to petition her government to change in ways that would be good for the planet and the people in ways that would align more with the principles articulated in its Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. No matter what happened, she never gave up her hope for a better world for all. Then, in the middle of her 7 th decade of her life, maintaining her hope stood her in good stead when she witnessed a violent insurrection enacted before anyone watching TV that cold day in January when the then president of her beloved country did the unthinkable. In speaking to a large crowd of his supporters who believed in his lies, he stoked their fears and anger because they believed his lies telling them if they didn’t “fight like hell” they would lose their country. He made this speech to get them to go to the Capitol and attempt to violently stop the ceremonial certification of ballots from the electoral college for the new president, because he couldn’t concede his loss in a free and fair election. He had spent months in the courts with his attorneys peddling lies that the election was rigged with no evidence to support his claims that would have made a change in the outcome of the election or hold up in court. He had exhausted all his judicial options in the courts to change the outcome, which he had every right to pursue. Only violence was left. He trampled on the American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power which had begun with the very first president of the country. This practice of the peaceful transfer of power was, and is, the bedrock of the country’s democratic republic. Hope watched the violence in horror. As awful as that day was, more troubles came. Yet, Hope held steadily to her commitment to hope and democracy. More evidence was presented to all Americans through an intense Congressional hearing to get to the truth of that awful day. Following that, the Department of Justice began its own investigation. Eventually after an exhaustive gathering of even more evidence, criminal indictments were handed down by the Department of Justice to participants in the violence, as well as to the previous loser president and his enablers. Through it all, Hope’s commitment to her country’s Constitution and the rule of law never wavered. Her hope for a better world lived in her heart and mind while continuing to guide her choices all along the way. Time passed during which another election for president was held and it was clearly a candidate for democracy vs. a candidate for autocracy. The candidate for democracy roused Americans to understand what was at stake and that they had a sacred mission to preserve democracy for the future, especially for those yet unborn. The candidate for democracy won. Americans had understood. One morning in the summer after the election, Hope awoke feeling joyous and hopeful. She and her fellow Americans had stood firm and their American democracy had survived the intense threat to its very existence. All the insurrectionists and their enablers had been brought to justice. But, in her mind and in the minds of others the sacred mission was still on the shoulders of the American people. Hope knew there was great work ahead for all Americans with their allies around the globe to undertake together in order to save life on Earth by focusing their collective energy on saving the planet. She had her own personal list of work to do that she shared with any and all who would listen. In her country and elsewhere there were projects that had begun but were not yet complete, such as new infrastructure from broadband internet to bridges, roads, railroad upgrades, and more. There were the multiple ways of transitioning from fossil fuels to nonpolluting energy sources, as well as, effective means of removing carbon from the atmosphere without creating new problems. There was the continued task of educating everyone to understand the dire consequences of ignoring disruptive symptoms of climate change like glaciers and sea ice melting, intense droughts in some places and fierce flooding in others. There was the task of making more visible the consequences of oligarchs who were selfish, greedy, and cruel, as well as, requiring those oligarchs to pay their fair share of the costs. Yes, the work ahead was immense. Yet, Hope was committed to the task and she knew millions of others around the globe were too. Groups and individuals using their skills, will power, love, and understanding to tackle the tasks at hand. Hope would use her writing of stories and poetry and the making of art to continue to focus herself and others on Love, Beauty, Hope, Empathy, Understanding, and Peace. She would remain so committed to helping make a better world until her last breath. She would live the changes she wished to see as best she could one day at a time knowing she wasn’t alone in these efforts and that truly only time would tell what fate held in store for mankind on Earth.