Hopes for the Coming Year

Every year at the turn of the year I used to make a series of predictions here at The Glittering Eye. Last year I gave up the practice. It’s not that my track record wasn’t good; more than 85% of what I predicted in any given year actually game to pass. It was that what I predicted was inconsequential. Like everybody else I never predicted the really important events that would happen in any given year.

That still leaves what feels to me like a gaping hole. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions so that doesn’t satisfy the requirement.

Instead I’ll express a series of hopes for the coming year. Not dreams but things that have some remote possibility of actually happening and I’ll ask you do to the same.

Sam Clemens once said “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” I hope that the members of Congress will do the right thing and return to the practice of review, deliberation, and compromise that has been so rare lately so that they can get on with the business of the country. I’m not sure whether that would gratify me or astonish me. Probably some of both but it’s sorely needed. The implicit assumptions of not acting at all are that the status quo is the best that can reasonably be accomplished and that nothing ever changes. That is so manifestly not true when it comes to legislation it’s a wonder to me that anyone could believe it.

The most important bilateral relationship in the world today is between the U. S. and Russia and that relationship is too hostile now. I hope that American and NATO officials come to the realization that Russia has legitimate interests and can no more be expected to abandon those interests than we would. The Ukraine is a vital interest for Russia and only an interest for the U. S. in abstract terms. Russia cannot tolerate an openly hostile regime in the Ukraine any more than we would accept an openly hostile one in Mexico or Cuba.

I hope that the relationship between police officers and public officials in the U. S. becomes no more strained than it is now and, indeed, that tensions begin to ease. There are some legitimate, practical problems and some psychological ones. We should distinguish between them and take the appropriate measures to deal with each on its own terms.

2014 was the deadliest year in Iraq since 2007. I hope that officials in the United States come to the realization that, while there’s a literal not figurative battle being waged over the soul of Islam, it’s a war for Muslims to fight and we have no productive role in it other than from the sidelines. Our emphasis should be on mitigating risk rather than attempting to dictate the outcome.

I hope that our elected officials turn their concerns to correcting the deficiencies of the PPACA rather than trying to tear it down on the one hand or casting it in bronze on the other. I’m afraid that’s more of a dream than a hope.

The Ebola epidemic is still raging in West Africa. I hope that we come to the realization that just because something isn’t on the nightly news doesn’t mean it’s not happening or that it can’t affect us. The number of deaths and the number of new cases (which means the number of future deaths) continue to rise. The longer the epidemic continues the more likely it is to become endemic which would be a tragedy.

Personally, I hope that my own good fortune continues and I wish happiness, health, prosperity, and peace of mind to all of my readers in the coming year.

Please contribute your own hopes for the new year in comments. You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.