Why The Green Party is so Inspiring. How much HOPE do YOU have?

I joined the Green Party three months ago because, for the first time in my life, I was truly fired up by the possibilities of what hope could achieve over hate in our divided country. The spectre of Reform marching to any kind of victory with its depressing band of failed Tories, and demoralising message of hate, was enough to show me that we needed new and fresh perspectives for our country. The results of the Gorton and Denton by-election dramatically confirmed that. 

In fact, the Greens message of hope reminded me of a quote by someone else who also emphasised the power of hope and self-belief when he made an audacious bid for the White House, former President Barack Obama. In a moving statement, he said then:

"Hope is not blind optimism. Its not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead, or the roadblocks that stand in our path. Its not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it....Hope is the bedrock of this nation - the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us. By all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is--who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. Together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things." 

This quote is so uplifting and motivating, not least for the last sentence, "Together, ordinary people can do extraordinary things." 

Hannah Spencer of the Greens did exactly that with her remarkable victory, something extraordinary which could produce seismic waves across the country for many people who had lost hope,

When we are stuck in a rut, in a certain outdated mindset, and are used to negative words and actions instead of encouraging ones, it is easy to dismiss the current Green message of hope as mere empty words and political fodder. It is difficult to change from being negative to positive overnight, without the necessary 'proof' we require to believe it. Difficult to see another way of achieving things, when everything has been disappointing and is being governed by past failures. Difficult to see how Zack Polanski's hopeful words can change into reality when one has seen it all promised before and fallen by the wayside. 

But the key point here is that Polanski isn't promising us anything. He is not promising to do anything himself either, which makes those who love to scapegoat others for the quality of their own lives perhaps feel uncomfortable. Polanski and the Green Party are, in fact, putting the ball into our court. Showing us that though we are 'ordinary' beings, together we can be almost invincible. We can do things we never even dreamt of, if we have the hope, the faith and the will to change our actions, to change our results and gradually change our world. We can, in fact, be quite extraordinary, if we choose, or quite ordinary and powerless if we have no faith or self-belief.

What is giving life to the Green Party's message of hope just now, making them reverberate loudly across the country, are three crucial things: 

1. The need for something different; 

2. The political negativity slowly engulfing us;

3. And the timing. That timing is so important. 

At any other time, words of hope might have fallen on deaf ears; they would not have made an impact or taken root so quickly. But the fact that they are like sparks falling on dry timber says where we all are just now - confused, hopeless and bewildered at the increasing divisiveness, with a dire need for empowerment to change our situation. Not just by Polanski and his party promising anything, but by us all joining them to give life to those hopeful words in our individual way, and to realise what is now possible!

The Greens cannot do it alone. Notice how many times Polanski says 'you' in his speeches. He knows that without us, his party can only do so much. They need our trust, faith and help to make them stand out from all the other politicians doing things in the same old way, touting those continuing empty promises just for our votes. Gorton & Denton is an amazing start to collective action for a very different future!

Personally, I don't do ordinary, so it is wonderful to find someone like Polanski, and the Green Party, who can help me to become truly 'extraordinary'.