Maggie Gallagher: Farewell To Optimism

"So in this, my final column, I say my farewell to optimism and my hello to hope. What is the difference? Optimism is a prediction; hope is a virtue. My hope rests on this: The truths to which I've dedicated my life, both professionally and personally, are too important to ignore, too foundational to be abandoned, too much a part of reality to be lost forever. Do not abandon politics. It is one important means to create culture -- to name our shared reality.

"But we need, as well, a next generation of culture creators, of storytellers, with the credentials to name reality: empirical social scientists, novelists, poets, preachers and filmmakers.We need donors to invest in building the networks and communities through which such voices are born, flourish and give meaning to the lives of millions.The future belongs to those of us with enough hope to rebuild on the ashes of optimism, a new American civilization -- uniting sex, love, babies, mothers and fathers in this thing called marriage." - Hate group leader Maggie Gallagher, whose nationally syndicated column was "retired" this week after 17 years.

RELATED: Gallagher does an exit interview (of sorts) today with the Huffington Post.  Interviewer Lila Shapiro asks if anything good can come of gay marriage. Gallagher:  "Not really. I hope I'm wrong though. Oh, except for making it less likely the Supreme Court will decide that gay people are politically powerless and need special court protection to function in a democracy. Oh, and of course it would make some gay people happy so that's a good thing. Good that someone will be happy!"

ALSO RELATED: While Gallagher left NOM over two years ago, she remains busy in the anti-gay hate industry and now chairs the legal group that is defending Jewish "ex-gay" crackpots JONAH against the fraud lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.