I knew the answer already for myself, I'm a pessimistic optimist. There are plenty of things wrong in this world, there is no denying that. And our prognosis for the future has plenty of negatives, especially if you are in the emergency management business. In the last 25 years, we've added many more hazards to an already long list that we must be concerned with. This is the pessimistic part of me.
Everything it seems is on a downward spiral. Having said that, I do believe that there is hope. With many challenges come many opportunities. First and foremost is our ability as individuals to make a difference. Each of us, like a drop of water, doesn't seem to amount to much, but when combined with the efforts of others we can see bigger results. Drops become trickles, streams, creeks, rivers, lakes, oceans of effort. One only needs to look at the power of social media and how one person can galvanize the efforts of many others.
I also believe in the ability to innovate for good. Technology will be a large part of our future and can make a significant contribution to solving many of the issues we face today and will face in the future.
This individual action, combined with the work of others and the help of innovation, makes up the optimistic part of me.
