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[I originally published this in May 2009, and reposted it once in May 2010. As we have a lot of new readers recently, some of whom don't feel obliged to concern themselves with the required reading, I thought it was time to repost it. Also? Because I need it as much as anyone else.]

This, you may have noticed, is a blog about teaspoons.

It is a blog about increments of measurement so infinitesimally tiny they haven't been given names, about glitches in the Matrix so swift and subtle that they are more easily missed than noticed, about tangible particles of a thing called progress not visible to the naked eye.

It is a blog about hope—not the kind that's packaged and sold in anti-aging creams, soda pop cans, or even political campaigns—but the real thing: A hopefulness that radiates like whoa from the pores of indefatigably optimistic dreamers, who close their eyes and tilt their faces up toward the sun and imagine a future where equality and freedom are not aspirational concepts, but defining features of every human life.

It is a blog about connection, and the realization that we are all in this thing together, and the resolve to be all in, because we make a difference in this world, for good or ill, because we know there is no neutral; there is no moral ambiguity in staying silent; there is only standing up and saying no to the indignities one human visits upon another, or saying yes.

It is a blog of wildly unreasonable expectations, because unreasonable expectations are the seeds of progress.

One of the greatest American advocates for progress, a gentleman you may have heard of named Dr. King, is not remembered for giving a speech about his resignation to the status quo. He is remembered because he admonished us not to wallow in the valley of despair and exhorted us to envision big things and told us to never be satisfied with less. He said to the world, "I have a dream," and that dream was what many people might have called in its time (and may call still) an unreasonable expectation.

Eradicating any kind of bigotry is, by definition, an unreasonable expectation—because institutional bigotry is deeply entrenched. Prejudice is ancient. Only a fool would imagine it can be overcome.

Except, of course, that it can be. Bit by bit. Particle by particle. Teaspoon by teaspoon. Person by person. Prejudice is ancient, but it dies with its every carrier and must be taught again. And it can be unlearned. Bit by bit. Particle by particle. Teaspoon by teaspoon. Person by person.

Patience, it takes, and determined sanguinity, to create people filled with expansive love and intractable respect for one another in a culture that casts us as enemies.

And it takes unreasonable expectations, the seeds of progress.

Thus, every time someone asks me, greets my bellicose display of unreasonable expectations with, the exceedingly un-progressive question, "What do you expect?" I will answer the same as I always do: I expect more.

Of course the Republican Party is racist. What do you expect?

I expect more.

Of course lots of male bloggers are misogynists. What do you expect?

I expect more.

Of course some television show is homophobic. What do you expect?

I expect more.

Of course some feminists are transphobic. What do you expect?

I expect more.

Of course there are ablest jokes in sitcoms. What do you expect?

I expect more.

Of course there are fat-hating jokes in advertisements. What do you expect?

I expect more.

You can't expect people to mess with iconic cultural images just to give a nod to diversity. It will upset people.

The fuck I can't. I expect more.

I'm not ironically detached, I'm not apathetic, I'm not resigned, and I'm not contemptuous of bleeding hearts. I am a greedy bitch with voracious expectations, and I dream long and lustfully of a better world that is both my muse and objective. I want it like the cracked earth of the desert wants rain, and I will neither apologize for nor amend my desire because of its remove from the here and now; its distance encourages my reach.

Don't bother asking me what I expect.

You already know the answer.