We now enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed more than 800,000 American lives. All around us evidence exists that the climate crisis is growing. We continue our obsession with guns and daily experience deadly violence. Politically, we are split in two. Tensions with China and Russia are at their highest in three decades. Rather grim.
Nevertheless, there are reasons for hope. The most immediate threat to our physical health remains COVID-19, which has played havoc with our lives socially and economically. For several weeks the galloping Omicron variant will be on the rise and infect millions, but medical experts say it’s less serious and prolonged than earlier variants. Combining that with new antiviral pills coming along and the fact that more than 60 percent of Americans over age 5 are now vaccinated, we should be on our way to a more normal life by summer’s end.
A second immediate threat is the ongoing insurrection of what occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 last year. It was a watershed moment in American history — the most serious political threat to our republic since the Civil War. Masterminded by a sitting president and driven by a deliberate misinformation campaign, the “Big Lie” of a stolen national election took hold among millions of citizens. Despite dozens of state audits and recounts of the November 2020 election returns (all of which verified the original count), and despite the failure of 60-plus courts to support claims of fraud, more than a quarter of the public continues to believe otherwise.
The best reason for hope that facts will eventually prevail is that a U.S. House Select Committee is examining exactly what took place before and during the assault on the Capitol. Hundreds of persons who were involved are being interviewed. When we reflect on its findings, perhaps we can better put country ahead of party and cool the nation’s political temperature.
We are told in the Gospel of Matthew that the Three Wise Men saw a star. Two thousand years later, we see hundreds of billions of galaxies. With the aid of the new James Webb Space Telescope, the hope is to see the universe soon after the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago. Launched in December, the most powerful telescope ever, boasting a mirror 21 feet wide, can “see the heat signature of a bumblebee at the distance of the Moon,” says John Mather, co-founder of the Webb project. Seeking signs of life in galaxies far away, it will help to determine whether earth is unique. Excitement will follow, for when finished,
The project may revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos and sense of our place in the universe. We can hope to begin seeing images later this year.
An important federal voting-rights bill will come before the Senate this year, perhaps this month. What matters more in a democracy than the right of all citizens to cast a free ballot? It is the very heart of democracy. That is why recent restrictive voting laws in 19 states must be resisted, else we join the growing list of world nations backsliding from democracy. Also, a bill that addresses what states do before and after votes are cast is something to hope for as we enter a new year.
Concluding with a hopeful thought on family relations, a Christopher Weyant cartoon on “Holiday Rules” comes to mind. While waiting to enter a friend’s front door, a couple reminds each other: “Remember, don’t bring up politics, science, race, religion….” Such topics often anger up the blood among family members, especially when seated at a dinner table, close together, where there is no escape. The best advice I’ve heard in handling such situations is to suspend judgment at the outset, ask questions gently and try to understand each other by “active listening.” If that doesn’t work, then agree to put troublesome issues aside and move to more enjoyable ones.
I hope for so much more in 2022, but for now, “Happy New Year.”
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