Birmingham, Alabama: the Civil Rights Museum causes more than mere memories of news clips and press photos. The intensity can leave you both weeping at tragedies and raging at savageries. “Never again,” you say, and as you walk out past these white statues of unity you think that maybe “never again” could someday become a reality.

The day before the museum tour we Needmor members sat in a church to hear about the continuing struggle against racism; Angie was speaking of the difficulties of the struggle and the occasional small victories. She stopped for a second, looked at the ceiling, and said, I think to herself, but out loud and we heard it; “It takes courage to hope.”

We know enough of man’s innate inhumanity to man to know that “never again” will be an eternal unfulfilled hope, yet pilgrims will cross the slough of despond because they cling to hope. It is our nature, we are both sides of the same coin.

Hannah Senesh wrote, “Blessed is the match that is consumed in kindling a flame.” Blessed are those with the courage to hope.