Always Believe, Always Hope

I started writing early on Christmas morning.

I listened to Christmas music as I ate breakfast. And that was the only thing I did to 'celebrate' this day. The Christmas spirit skipped my house this year. 

I haven't been into Christmas for several years, but this year has been especially difficult. Isolation and the inability to travel have taken a toll on me. And losing my dog to cancer earlier this month has left a residual sadness that surfaces at random times.

But I have to believe that things will improve in the new year. After all, what is a life without hope? What kind of life would it be if I had no hope? I do believe that life under a new administration will improve, although it will be a slow and difficult process. I hope that people who have been kinder to themselves and others during the pandemic will continue to do so, and that those who have been overcome by selfishness, greed, nastiness and hate will start to change their attitudes. 

We must believe that we -- the ordinary, everyday people -- working with public health officials and vaccine producers, can and will conquer this pandemic. We must believe that we can return our nation to what it was 4 years ago and make it even better. We must believe that we can -- indeed, we must -- tackle the problems of social and racial injustice. We must address economic inequality in this country, insuring that everyone -- including billionaires, multimillionaires and huge corporations -- pay their fair share of taxes. I'm not suggesting that we punish the super rich and hand out money to the less fortunate, but the current system of taxation cannot be sustained. We must believe, and make it so, that we can transform our corrupt, elitist, out-of-touch political system to better represent everyday people.

We must believe, and insist, that everyone should have access to affordable health care. If other developed countries can provide health care and a college education at little to no cost, we must believe that America -- the one of the wealthiest countries on the planet -- can do so as well.

We must hope that America will at last take action to address the climate crisis. It won't be easy, and it won't be cheap. But it must be done if we are to continue to inhabit this earth. And as the saying goes, 'there is no planet B.'

It isn't easy in the face of a pandemic, high unemployment and business failures, and after suffering through 4 years of blatant corruption, ineptitude, nepotism, greed and graft. But as difficult and overwhelming and hopeless as things may seem, we must not stop believing in the possibility of a better America.