The End of 2020 Lament & Invocation
I’m exhausted. The temper tantrums continue, Republicans still refuse to recognize the extraordinary situation we as a nation are confronted with in the face of Covid, Democrats still don’t seem to be fighting back hard enough, we’re killing each other with guns and knives and bombs, police brutality and disregard for Black lives continues as though the BLM protests never happened and the 13th and 14th Amendments are some heretical wrongs to be righted through violence. Enemies within and without continue to bang down our doors, smash our windows, and try to rip us apart like we’re all caught in a George Romero flick.
The coup/autogolpe attempt is a slow rolling mess of failure, but an excellent dress rehearsal. Super gonorrhea is now a thing, and this coming along in the last few days of the year. Billy Joel might have been right, but we keep pouring the gasoline on and ironically it seems we’re unwittingly using a firehose.
If you think my words are too harsh, too alarmist, too doom and gloom then you are not paying enough attention.
That said, as this is definitely my last post of this terrible, no good dirty rotten year, I offer the following, a prayer, words of good will and hope to my fellow humans and to any and all deities who will listen and do well by us poor schlubs still stuck on this rock.
To 2021 I offer my sincerest hope that we will come out of our dark four years, the darkest being this last, and finally turn it all into a distant fading memory, like a nightmare that dissipates soon after brushing your teeth. I wish and hope and pray that our new President, Vice President and Administration carries us as a Nation and United People forward to brighter, better days. That we face an embarrassment of riches in highly effective Covid vaccines so that by early Summer (if not sooner!) every last one of us can once again love and hug and socialize without fear. That January 5th gives the Democrats the majority in the Senate, no matter how slim.
I hope to see an America that once again shows its love and kindness to not only its own citizens, but the world at large. I hope, nay, I pray to the Universe that the Republican Party and its members recognize the terrible hard turn they’ve all taken under Trump and return to being a Party we can count on to defend and uphold Democracy. That they denounce authoritarianism, they’re love of extreme gerrymandering and Trumpism. That they push Trump and his progeny into the landfill of history, but not before ensuring history books call out and highlight the terrible path Trump and his followers led us down.
I hope for and look forward to a new year that brings real progress in our fight to curb (and reverse!) global warming.
I hope that we as a Nation have a real reckoning on how we treat our poor, sick and most vulnerable. That this leads us to a serious conversation and policy progress on how we can best help those most in need. That we realize we can still be a people of independence while acting, working and cooperating as a collective and that rugged individualism and collective social cooperation are not mutually exclusive.
I pray that all of the inadequacies that continue to keep us one step from true greatness can be addressed and rectified. I remain hopeful that decency and good will win out over malice and indifference.
May we find that 2020 was truly the darkest before the dawn.
Simply, I hope and wish for all of us a better, brighter, safer, saner, happier, closer, more loving, caring, hopeful, visionary, healing year.
Be safe. Be vigilant. Keep up the good fight.
