A New Year — By John Reed

A New Year
After a truly challenging year, resolutions for 2022 will include efforts to return to normalcy. But looking backward to past lifestyles doesn’t take into consideration lessons learned over recent times. So, here are some suggestions for a return to sanity:
1. Take political philosophies of both sides out of medical decisions. It’s obvious by now that vaccines are safe and effective solutions for many diseases, including Covid…for most but not all people. There are a lot of folks who cannot take a shot for various reasons, and they shouldn’t be branded as fools or worse for choosing not to.
2. Teachers, health professionals, truck drivers, and others are the lifeblood of our economy. They deserve every bit of support we can offer.
3. Let’s be honest about the differences between equality and equity. Recent efforts to atone for past injustices have merely increased racial tensions. Equal opportunity has never guaranteed equal outcomes, but I think all can agree we can still work to increase opportunities for all without singling out any race or culture for special treatment at the expense of others.
4. We need to judge people as individuals, not as members of a group. There will always be those who want to be seen as leading representatives of some ethnic group or mindset. The thing is, the vast majority just want to live their lives as people, not symbols.
5. Finally, regular readers know I’m an optimist. The current trend of constantly finding fault should be flipped to finding opportunities. Doing that requires courage, honesty, and a lot of effort.
I’m also a realist, so I’m not resolving to lose weight or any of the usual unkept promises. I also realize how much inertia the entrenched politicians and their media hacks (on both sides) have. There’s a whole industry to victimhood, and it sells to non thinking folks whose knees jerk at the slightest perceived offense.
Still, I believe 2022 will be the year we snap out of our national malaise.