By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
The sun will rise at 7:29 a.m. Friday, although it is unlikely we’ll see it peek over the eastern horizon, given the crappy weather we’re having in North Texas.
It doesn’t matter. The darkness will give way to the light (more or less) and a new year will have arrived.
We all feel the same way about 2020. It sucked out loud. The pandemic continues to bring untold misery to millions of Americans and others around the world; it has killed more than 340,000 of us. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, blew it off publicly. He told us early in the year that the pandemic is “under control.” It damn sure isn’t!
Our nation’s economy collapsed. Millions of Americans lost their jobs. Trump kept gloating about the stock market’s rise. Oh, the jobs lost? He spoke next to nothing about the suffering and strife occurring in homes throughout the land.
Then came that election. Americans sent a message of their own to Donald Trump. It was, if you’ll accept this generalization, simply this: Donald, we are sick of your policy-by-Twitter, your insults, your boorish behavior, your incessant lies and the utter incompetence you demonstrate daily about how to run the government; we want a return to the old normal.
Step right up, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. A weary nation awaits your ascent to the pinnacle of power.
We’ve got 19 days to go before Biden takes over. He has selected a governing team that he says resembles the nation he was elected to lead. It is full of ethnic and racial minorities, of men and women. It is full of individuals with prior government experience and an appreciation and understanding of its complexity, which to my mind is the most important component of the government that is taking shape.
And so … we commence the new year with a sense of hope. We must maintain our patience and vigilance as the pandemic battle continues. Those vaccines are being administered. The crisis won’t vanish any time soon.
The new president has made a solemn vow to ramp up that fight, to wage all-out war against the pandemic. I await the result of that fight and the day we can declare victory against this enemy.
I am not foolish enough to believe that declaration will come during this upcoming calendar year. However, I am enough of an optimist to believe that we are going to make a significant advance toward that end. May we start advancing right now.
Happy new year!