reading some of the negative, hateful, over-the-top posts here on DU.

Having said that, it is reading some of the posts which explain specifics and offering well thought out perspectives that I hadn't considered before or ever thought of that restores and nurtures my "hope".

My children and grandchildren deserve to have a chance at a future. I owe them that more than anything, and if we give in to despair and defeatism we are guaranteed to fail.

It also helps to put things in perspective. We could have been born into a village in Somalia, and be struggling to get our starving child to a feeding station- or have been one of the people on that island in Norway, or born as yet another female child to an impoverished family in India. We could have come into this world as someone like Jared Loughner, or Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh- thinking /caring nothing at all the harm our big mouth and hate filled mantras promote- worse yet, believing we were doing what was 'good' and 'right'.

We weren't. Not because we deserve better, but because of pure dumb luck. As hard as life is at times, (and I'm not denying struggling and suffering) there ARE those who have it worse. If we allow ourselves to get stuck in self-pity and despair, we not only hurt ourselves even more, we hurt others around us.

Depression is treatable, and is nothing to be ashamed of.

I hope you are able to find some peace.