There is grim reality, and there is grim reality made grimmer by the futility of action. That the powerless will continue to be trampled over by the powerful, that the narrow-minded will continue to be bigoted, that the law will never be able to protect the right people, and that people who inflict cold-blooded crime will never realize they were wrong. And that by the time these wrongs are righted, the meek will be too dead to gloat.
Optimism, then, sometimes consists of making peace with the measly fact that you're still alive.