All is not lost

I heard two news-related items that gave me just a little bit of hope since finishing work last night.
Firstly, I saw an amazing bit of footage on ABC News last night regarding the conflict between Fatah and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
As you (should) already know, the situation there has basically decended into civil war.
Despite a ceasefire between the two factions being declared on, like, Wednesday, the two have broken out into open warfare.
The Palestinian President has sacked the entire Government and declared a State of emergency as the two groups struggle for power.
So a massive crowd of unarmed Palestinians took to the streets, sick of the violence and killings.
This footage showed these protesters, but the amazing thing was there were bullets flying all around them as they marched.
And then I saw something that reminded me of the Tiananmen Square protesters.
A lone, middle-aged Palestinian man, unarmed, saw a militant firing at something on the side of the street near where they were marching.

This guy, showing no fear, ran up to the man, pushed his gun away and started shoving him and telling him off - much like a father would tell off a son - to stop firing.
The gunman, who appeared shocked, didn't know what to do. He seemed to think about shooting the man himself but in the end just ran away.

The second thing was on the radio this morning.
The grandmother of the baby who was adopted this week by a gay couple spoke to Geoff Htuchinson on his ABC Mornings show.
She was legally bound not to reveal her identity, but said she was so horrified by the bigotry shown by talkback callers yesterday that she had to speak out.
I didn't hear the whole segment, but she said that the birth father of the baby - and his family - wanted "nothing to do with the child." Furthermore, she said as a grandmother, she couldn't have hoped for a more loving environment for her grandchild.

These two items gave me a tiny glimmering of hope.
If one person - be it a Palestinian civilian fed up with constant violence, or a Perth grandmother fed up with constant bigotry - can stand up to bullies, militants and bigots.... Well I guess it means that all is not lost. And that gives me hope.