Real hope
Your arms have been pulled back so far your shoulders are on the verge of being dislocated. You are in excruciating pain, and are left that way all day. The same torture will be repeated each day until you provide some sort of information, whether it's true or false. But you know that the enemy tortures one POW at a time, so the longer you can hold out the longer before someone else is tortured, and the fewer POW's will have to suffer through it.
How do you make it?
Hope.
Your meals when the prison guards bring the to you are maggot-infested, seaweed, grown in a local cesspool. Hunger gnaws at you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, with only the same, nauseating diet to look forward to. And the maggots are a plus, because at least then you'll get some much needed protein.
How do you make it?
Hope.
The only human beings you've seen in 18 months are the animals that torture and mock you. You haven't heard a word from any of your family for years, and only know there are other POWs because of the coded communications sent via taps when the guards aren't paying attention. You may see one fellow POW every few years, but the rest of the time you spend in dank, fowl solitude.
How do you make it?
Hope.
You are offered freedom, but you know it's because of family ties, and fellow POWs imprisoned long before you will remain in this hell. You somehow find the strength to turn it down, demanding any release should be based on who was captured first.
How do you do it?
Hope.
Day after day you are told your country has abandoned you, that you are hated and reviled as a symbol of America's failure, that no one, anywhere cares what happens to you.
How do you keep going?
Hope.
You're told your unborn child has a rare genetic condition that will make him mentally disabled, and possibly needing care his entire life. You're offered the "choice" to kill your baby and pretend he never existed. You instead choose to bear, give birth to and love your child in spite of any conditions he has.
How do you do it?
Hope.
Where do you find this kind of hope? While we know POW's had it, you can also find this same kind of hope among terminal cancer patients. We know you can find it in the hearts of parents with special needs kids. You can also find it among some single parents when they see their kids doing without, but know if they work hard enough, they can make up the difference and their kids will be okay.
It's the one thing no one can take away from you, it can only be lost when you yourself abandon it. It's something many people never really know the true meaning of because they've never been to the place that it was the only thing they had to rely on.
So when the Liberal media gleefully tell us that the McCain campaign is down for the count, without a hope for winning the election, we can know they only say this because they themselves don't know the real meaning of hope. And we know that John McCain and Sarah Palin do.
Which team of candidates really understand hope? Which then would truly be the ones most able to bring it to us?
Posted by Danny Carlton at October 27, 2008 7:44 AM