#Microblog Monday 536: Hope

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Rebecca Solnit had a piece in the Guardian on climate change, but I think the dek applies to all news right now: “So much is happening, both wonderful and terrible – and it matters how we tell it. We can’t erase the bad news, but to ignore the good is the route to indifference or despair.”

The problem is outlined in the first paragraph: “We are hemmed in by stories that prevent us from seeing, or believing in, or acting on the possibilities for change.”

I went from not reading opinion pieces to sticking to heds and deks for news coverage to taking nights skipping the news entirely, beyond email alerts, because it felt like all bad news. And while Solnit is correct, we cannot erase the bad news, she is also correct that we cannot leave people in a perpetual state of hopelessness. Celebrating the small wins, highlighting the work that can be done, spotlighting people making a difference helps balance out the reality of those other stories. Because I think Harvey Milk had it right when we think about the power of hope to drive change.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.