Oh yes friends; another year has just about come and gone and a new dawn of a new year will soon bathe us in the brilliance of its possibility. Yep, that’s exactly what I told myself last year too. Don’t get me wrong, hope is a wonderful thing and all, and it does spring eternal, however, it was not enough to carry me through the last year. So this year, I am trying a new approach. Instead of trying to do the good, right, just and positive all the time, while having it amount to nil a year later; I will do the exact opposite and resolve to start smoking once again, perhaps drink more and maybe, just maybe, if I lower my expectations enough, the outcome of next year will be sweeter.
I hear some of you arguing with me already, but remember that one year when you made the resolution to quit smoking or drinking? A lot of damn good that did you now didn’t it? Now you crave smoke and drink all the time to drown out the pain of unemployment and an ever collapsing economy, which are profoundly exacerbated by doomsday journalists who, I’m convinced, played a large part in the current economic meltdown by their spreading of fearful predictions that may eventually culminate in bringing about the capitalistic end of days. This isn’t to say its all journalisms fault; no, it’s just Keith Olbermann’s fault. Ah, I kid Keith, but that’s because I can’t meet him. Yet, if I were to meet him I wouldn’t be kidding around with him either, but more so kicking him in the face.
This year did see some good things though, like Barack Obama being elected and becoming the first African-American President in US history. Other notable things were ummm…uhhh…Michael Phelps, winning 8 gold medals, setting a new world record and shattering the glass ceiling set up by the jealous douche Mark Spitz. Furthermore, another pane of transparent fragile material set on high was busted by Hillarly Clinton, who was the first woman to run for the presidency. It’s appropriate with all this ceiling bashing that this was indeed the theme of the whole year. Our country, which had seemed so firm and steady, high above the concept of debt and those other problems that just the rest of the world faces, suddenly shattered, crashing down, cutting and lacerating American citizens with an unrelenting shower of jagged debris. Now we are looking at a complete overhaul and replacement of that ceiling and the coming years are going to be especially crucial towards that endeavor.
We saw the political parties pointing fingers, throwing blame and vilifying any and every position claiming it was the culprit for absurd gas prices, the housing crash, stock market crash, Iraq, Afghanistan, lack of new forms of energy, political corruption, Georgia, Russia, Israel, pork barrel spending, bailouts, bailouts, bailouts, bailouts, and the Polar Bear. This year was categorized by plenty of problems and blame to go around, but no real solutions. Everyone was quick to pass blame and this is what really took place on the senate floor rather than any real progress. You want to fight then that’s fine, but do it behind closed doors after your job is over and you have remedied the situation. A real remedy though. Not Washington’s current answer to everything, which is to throw money at it, money that we don’t have and essentially doesn’t exist. What’s going to happen when someone comes to collect? Yes, I am a Republican and yes I voted for McCain, but I am rooting for Obama. Why? Simply, if he fails, our country does and we cannot afford it. Since this last year has seen the death of the Republican Party already, its time we stop pointing fingers, get off our ass and put some solutions on the table before Main Street, Rodeo Drive, Madison Avenue, Skid Row, or whatever thoroughfare analogy you want to use, all go down together.
Where neutrality was once the standard, we saw the consumption of journalism by ego and now bias is the norm as long as you can back it up with insult. Screw logic and reason! Screw compassion! Screw respecting other people’s opinions and perceptions! Screw civility! No, Hollywood, press rooms and government don’t need civility anymore and neither does the American public, for apparently what is civil isn’t progressive enough and is holding society back. We saw the media vilification of average citizens like Joe the Plumber, Bristol Palin and Trig, Sarah Palin’s baby boy who has Down Syndrome. We saw Caylee Anthony disappear and Nancy Grace, despite her legal background, forget about the foundational concept of presumed innocence within our judicial system. We saw the politically singular nature of liberalism within the feminist movement and watched as MSNBC put Joe the Plumbers tax records all over national TV, while not bothering to look into domestic terrorists who are now professors at prestigious universities teaching our youth with their ideology of hate, violence and death. Now, just before the New Year, we are watching as MSNBC goes after Pastor Rick Warren whose only crime is having a differing opinion and being invited by Obama to give the invocation at the inauguration. Could it be that they actually struck up a friendship when Obama came to the Saddleback church? Furthermore, last time I checked, disagreeing with someone or having an opposing opinion doesn’t make you a bigot and if it does, guess what? We are all bigots, for we all disagree with someone out there. Hate terrorism? Then you’re a bigot, bigot.
It has come down to today, where the world continues to crumble and even at this very hour war rages in Israel, which terrorists consistently attack, but in the end that won’t matter, for it will somehow become the fault of the US and Israel anyway. Hamas will ride the waves of a worldwide over-sentimentalism and walk away unscathed as usual. Now come the New Year and now come Obama. What hope is there? Now this might raise a few eyebrows amongst my conservative brethren, especially if you have read previous entries I wrote, but too often perception equates to truth and with the perception the majority of the public has of Obama, on who he is and what he may be able to do; perhaps it can entice people to try and shape our country into something better. People live their lives adhering to their perceptions, and hope, which Obama seems to signify, has the ability to inspire and to motivate. If he truly has this affect on so many people, then perhaps it may lead to a revival of prosperity.
Now is the time. The time when we need to work together in mutual respect and look past ourselves to the greater cause, which is this country, this world and the following generations that will be reared within it. Furthermore, we need to practice what we preach in order that a proper beneficial perception may be maintained and used to better, not only the individual, but society as a whole. This means you cannot advocate peace and respect for a countries borders and then throw a garbage can through a Starbucks window during a protest march. This means you cannot advocate for free speech then insult or trash on other people’s right and utilization of the same liberties you are protected by and so wholeheartedly cherish.
For 2009, let us respect each other, even in the face of other ideals. Within this argumentative culture, let us work for our causes on an individual level, concentrating on what we believe and furthering ourselves rather than seeing it in a context of winning or losing in relation to those of differing perceptions. This is no easy task and one may need to confront truths about themselves that they would much rather avoid. Trust me, I know from experience. Yet, it is essential and beneficial, not only for the individual, but also for society as a whole and the comprised parts thereof. These are some steps every one of us can take without diving into presidential economic policy and other complicated issues that the American people are feeling increasingly disassociated with. However, we can make a difference by the furthering of our character. It is imperative for the sake of our nation and our children, who will subsequently dwell on this very soil after this generation has run its course, that we shape our country and lives into something better.
We all know the mistakes of the past resonate within the present and I for one don’t want following generations to have to bear the brunt and burden of our mismanagement of government, economy, our core ethics, and the decay of character and tolerances which have now become now so prevalent in America. At the stroke of midnight the year will change along with the world. The world has changed over the past year, we all perceive of this and no matter what change will happen, either good or bad, change will certainly come. History will look back on this era as the time we either slipped further into the abyss of despondency or the fulcrum point when we turned our world around and made it a better place. We should not look at it as if it is up to the administration and the three branches of American government to dictate which one occurs, but rather within and to ourselves, where real change is manifest and real progression is carried out.
For tonight however…lets all get drunk!! Have a wonderful night everyone and I will catch you on the flip side of the New Year. Cheers! (I am on the left just to clarify.)
--Brandon Myhre
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