My first task is to show how great we are as a nation - let's banish the pessimists.
People don't like to follow pessimists.
History has suggested that the pessimists have been wrong time and time again.
Pessimists are born, true, but they also can be made.
I have lived long enough to witness the vanishing of wild mammals, butterflies, mayflies, songbirds and fish that I once feared my grandchildren would not experience: it has all happened faster than even the pessimists predicted.
Pessimism doesn't grow your business or even maintain the status quo. The pessimists on your staff make the job harder for everyone around them. They make difficulties out of opportunities.
Pessimists are toxic. I love optimists - and by that, I don't mean people who are unable to see challenges. Optimists are solution-oriented.
If the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.
My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.
And our pessimists think this has taken too long. Our pessimists believe that too many Americans have died. Our pessimists believe that we have lost the war.
