"Yet, in our tears, we discover a reason to dream and the promise of a future filled with hope. No one has spoken more eloquently of this moment of fear and promise than a four-year-old child from Russia. These are her words:
"May there always be sunlight.
"May there always be trees.
"May there always be mama and papa.
"May there always be me.
"Uncovering and reconnecting with our dreams enables us to confront the despair so deeply embedded in our cultural psyche. This eroded sense of worth envelops our collective soul as we face a growing number of problems brought on by structures of oppression, whether related to race, sex, class, or ecological devastation. One predictable result of our cultural cynicism and despair is horizontal violence, where the oppressed oppress one another: women discriminate against women; minorities undermine one another; and the poor oppress the poor. Injustice multiplies as the cycles accelerate. When we dream, we imagine how the world could be and take responsibility for bringing it about. When interest and imaginations are ignited by the dream, hope is possible. In the manta of the Rainbow Coalition, we can keep hope alive. Our dreams make it possible for us to believe that tomorrow can be difficult from today. An inscription found on a church door in Essex, England gives voice to our hope:
"A vision without a task is but a dream
"A task without a vision is drudgery
"A vision and a task is the joy of the world.
"The challenge of cultural rebirth is to heal the chasm between our dream of how life could be and how it currently is. Implementing our dream will involve struggle and pain. We must want the dream badly enough to undergo the effort necessary to go beyond what seem to be our limits. Whether the obstructions are internal or external, we much not throw up our hands in the face of inevitable resistance to the new. In the face of our doubts and uncertainty, we are challenged to live our new dream, to put aside the operational doubt that follows upon our initial vision and rediscover a new 'guiding star' that will energize our efforts and provide the courage and commitment to begin again. This process of beginning with a utopian vision as a resource for change is a constant in the lives of all who work to make a difference and become agents of transformation. It is also true that when we move toward putting our vision into practice, obstacles occur and doubt ensues. Thus, we must constantly reinvent the dream in the face of struggle and rediscover a new vision for our efforts as we strive again and again to reinvent our work. In this way, we constantly engage in efforts of resurrection, liberation, revolution and rebirth."
