Ashley Todd and the Assassins of Hope

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

Let me begin by saying that, personally, I'm not real big on hope. I regard hope as a neurochemical trick our brains play on us to keep us alive long enough to propagate the species. Hope keeps us in bad jobs and failed marriages, makes us keep losing at poker and compels us to buy clothes two sizes smaller than we're wearing right now.

But, being human, I can't help but hope, and I hate to see hope denied. Over my lifetime I have witnessed hope silenced in ways that are sometimes slow and insidious, and sometimes sudden and tragic.

So when I look at Ashley Todd, I don't see a fanatical political follower, or a delusional young woman, or even a possible pawn in a larger game. I see a potential assassin of hope.

Her goal was not to incite racial hatred. That was just the tactic she chose to achieve her goal of silencing Barack Obama. She wanted to take him out.

So as outraged as I am by the implications for African-American men in particular and all of us in general had her plot succeeded, I am hardened against any sympathy for her alleged mental imbalances by her attempt to kill hope - the hope that Senator Obama represents, and that he has kindled in the hearts of millions.

It's important to learn if she acted alone or in league with others. But either way, nothing - not her age, her gender, her state of mind - mitigates her actions. Nothing separates her from other assassins of hope except her failure to accomplish her goal.

[DIKB]

1. A nerdy quote

"-Hope is the denial of reality. It is the carrot dangled before the draft horse to keep him plodding along in a vain attempt to reach it.

-Are you saying we should just give up?

-I'm saying we should remove the carrot and walk forward with our eyes open"

Always be cautious and ever-alert that there are those who count on your hope to exploit you.