Hope is a verb.

It is an action.

A project.

A protest.

A defiance.

A MARCH.

It is love.

It is created in the minds and hearts, through the signs and shouts of the masses

Ringing through a park and neighborhood that, itself, is a testimony to what hope can do.

It is renewal.

Hope.

We come together, some feeling empowered

Others empty

Uncertain

Showing up, wondering, pleading

WILL TODAY GIVE ME THE HOPE I SO DESPERATELY NEED?

And I ask, Can a march give us hope? Can one action erase the fear? The pain?

Is hope something that can be given?

Delivered like a package from Amazon

Dropped in our laps?

Or is hope a verb?

Something we do

Something we live

Something we create

Something we BECOME.

With every sign

Every step

Every cheer and chant

Every tear

Every word we speak in resistance

We become the hope this country so desperately needs.

Today, we take our stand.

And tomorrow, we get to work.

Hope is gathering your courage once to march

And then, finding that same courage day, after day, after day,  to DO SOMEHTING

It’s showing up

EVERY. DAY.

It’s caring enough to march today, and call your legislators tomorrow, and the day after that,

 as many times as it takes until they listen.

It’s caring enough to run for office.

It’s speaking up for people and issues that might not directly affect you

People who don’t have access to reproductive healthcare

Housing

Clean Water

Queer people

Trans Women

People of Color – shouting if you have to that THEIR LIVES MATTER

BECAUSE THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT ME, AND IT ISN’T JUST ABOUT YOU

It’s about US, the big collective US

EVERY SINGLE DAY

We have to LIVE the hope

It’s easy to march

IT IS NOT ENOUGH to march

Yes, this moment gives me hope

Seeing all of you here makes me think that we will get through this

We will go home hopeful

But we cannot stop

Today cannot be the end

Today, we march

Tomorrow, we fight

WE have the ability to change the world

We have an OBLIGATION to change the world

Every single time we break out of our own bubbles and DO something, we are changing the world

With every step you take today, YOU are changing your world

WE ARE THE HOPE

WE ARE THE HOPE, TODAY, TOMORROW, THE NEXT FOUR YEARS, THE REST OF OUR LIFETIMES

AND WE ARE THE HOPE BEYOND OUR LIFETIMES.

OUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING, AND THEY TOO WILL LEARN TO LIVE HOPE.

March forth in hope, Cincinnati.