"Honestly, nothing will really change."
That was an excerpt from a message sent to me by a friend who saw my last diary entry, The Day Democracy Died.
"Honestly, nothing will really change."
I've been thinking a lot about that statement. I'm pretty sure it was meant to be comforting, to reassure me that despite the disastrous McCutcheon Vs. FEC ruling last week, we'll all be able to continue in pretty much the same way. Or maybe it was meant to be a statement of weary resignation... in other words, "Don't even try to fight the system, it'll stay the way it is."
Either way, I don't believe it. I can't believe it. Here's why:
Apathy and cynicism are too easy to be caught up in. It's too easy to just not care, or to start believing that the world is a cesspool and we're all on a downward slide. Maybe there's some kind of comfort in believing that things will stay the same or only get worse. It's easy to give in to negativity, and believe that there are no more heroes out there. But not for me.
I believe in heroes.
Call me naive, call me crazy, call me idealistic, call me a hopeless optimist, but I believe.
There are heroes out there.
Yes, we're angry, and we're frustrated, and we're weary from constantly fighting against people who would suppress us and take our basic human rights away just to make a few more dollars. We have every right to be tired. It's okay to feel that way. What's not okay is throwing your hands in the air and saying "Screw it all, I give up." The moment you say that, they win.
There are heroes out there.
Perhaps not the costumed ones that we see on movie screens or in comic books. Perhaps not the living gods who can defy nature and physics and move the planets on a whim. Perhaps they're only people, like you and me, but they're there. They may not show up plastered all over the media, or be celebrated for their efforts, but they're there.
I believe they're there.
Think about what you did this morning. You got out of bed, showered, dressed, went to work or school or whatever you do for a living. If you're reading these words, you made it through another day. No, you didn't stop a bank robbery or punch out the Joker, but you made it. You won your own little battle. In this modern world, there's something to be said for that.
You're a regular person, but regular people can be heroes, too. Just look at Batman.
And there are villains out there. Few as grandiose and cartoonish as the Joker, or Lex Luthor, or Loki, but they're there. They're patient, and they're insidious, and they never stop. The abusive boss, the corrupt politician, the greedy banker. They're the villains of our stories, and at times it seems the battle against them is insurmountable.
But we have an advantage over the comic book and movie superheroes...
That advantage is: our villains are only human as well. Regular people.
Like us, they're flawed. They bleed. They get up in the morning and go to bed at night. They get sick, they get old, they die. As powerful as they are, they're not immortal gods or evil beings that plan to reign for eternity... much as it may seem that way sometimes.
The villains of the real world are people, like us. Not one of them is invincible.
And we, the heroes of our own little stories, just by waking up and doing what we have to do, are winning against them. Slowly but surely, we're winning.
I believe in us. I believe in heroes.
As long as we do what we can, fight back when we can, live as well as we can, and do not give up, we'll still be heroes. Little heroes, but still. Even little heroes can do remarkable things. Little heroes can change the world.
"Honestly, nothing will really change"? I don't believe that. I can't believe it. Giving in to that viewpoint is unthinkable to me.
Things will change. Things will get better. We just have to keep fighting our battles, little by little, day by day. We need to keep believing in our heroes.
Stay strong. Don't give up.