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3~- <br />Given the difficulty of what King was doing, West said King was not consistently an optimist <br />how could he be? Instead, however, King was characterized as always a "prisoner of hope." No <br />matter the predicament or the prospects, he was hopeful. He could no more escape hope that he <br />could escape the Birmingham jail where he penned his famous letter. In his 1963 speech in <br />Washington, one of his classic lines referred to "hewing a stone of hope from a mountain of <br />despair." <br />In Marion Wright Edelman's book, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My <br />Children and Yours, she quotes President Havel of Czechoslovakia who, while literally <br />imprisoned, described ever-present hope in these terms, terms I relate to the hope of those who <br />seek to advance a social justice agenda: . <br />Either we have hope within us or we don't: it is a dunension of the soul.... Hope <br />in this deep and powerful sense is ... an ability to work for something because it is <br />good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed . ~... It is also this hope, above <br />all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try things, even in <br />conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now. <br />I do not mean to suggest that the Board of Commissioners should engage in quixotic endeavor or <br />join Sisyphus in his rock pushing. But King personified this hope-a practical hope that must be <br />kept alive, must inspire us to do more than we are, and to never, never give up. Asocial justice <br />goal must say and do as much. <br />February 16, 2005 <br />ORANGE COUNTYSOCL4L JUSTICE GOAL REPORT- Page 27 of 59 , <br />