Hope is a sedative

Hope is a drug. An anti-depressant. People want hope in bad times so they can withstand the terror. The terror that seems to greet them at every turn. Despair is also a drug. Despair like hope fogs one’s perception of events.

I have tried to avoid both. I neither wish to be a pollyanna or a doomsayer.

The American contribution to this conundrum is to act. Analyze and respond.